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INDIA BEATS
Lighting up lives
INDRANI DUTTA
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A group of housewives in Kolkata has come together to make a difference to the lives of senior citizens.
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“I look forward to the afternoons that I spend with them, to those moments when I forget even my illness.”
Photo: Sushanta Patronobish
Bringing joy: Jana Hitaya members celebrating a senior citizen’s birthday.
They were a group of housewives, mostly in their fifties leading comfortable lives. But they chose to be somewhat atypical and thereby have started making a difference to the lives they touch, be it the senior citizens whom they strive to serve or th
e corps of unemployed youth whom they seek to train to serve the elderly. Jana Hitaya, an association of mostly women, describe their effort as a citizens’ initiative for advancement of life.
Which is exactly what they do. Bringing a new meaning to the lives of men and women long past their prime and who find little help and support at a time when they need it the most. Jana Hitaya gives them hope and something to look forward to, whether it is the picnic they organise once a year or the annual fete for these elderly citizens, who now fill their normally empty days making pickles, greeting cards, stationery and handicrafts for selling at the fete.
Hidden talents
Few in Bidhan Chatterjee’s family knew of his creative skills until he started painting greeting cards accompanied by verses at Jana Hitaya. The ladies had stepped in when his family sought help to bring him out of a depression that proved to be more debilitating than the disease that had caused it. “While making our daily visits, he started talking about his wish to paint. We suggested that he start drawing greeting cards for our fete which was then only weeks away. He went and bought the material, stepping out of the house for the first time in a year and has regained his mental balance now, happy that his paintings are in demand.
“We try to make them stakeholders in our entire endeavour,” explains Papri Chowdhury who, alongwith like-minded friends, runs this venture. “The fete helps us raise some money to run the outfit which does not accept any organised funding. Donations in cash and kind are welcome but the services to the seniors come totally free.”
The range of services is undefined and seems to be expanding by the day. Jana Hitaya started out by helping the elders with their daily chores like paying bills, restoring their telephone lines, taking them to doctors but today their activities span a gamut of services including counselling to resolving family disputes that always catches the seniors at the wrong-end, to talking ailing seniors out of their depression.
Aiding them in this task is a battery of unemployed youth who have been specially trained. “We select carefully since we need boys who are sensitive in nature and kind-hearted. We pay them a monthly fee.”
The stories are many. Sumanta Mazumdar, an 82-year-old man, lived in Santiniketan, blinded by a cataract. He lived in his own dark world. He longed to see the big city Calcutta. On hearing this tale, Jana Hitaya burrowed out the details, went to Santiniketan and offered to bring him to Kolkata and get his eye treated. Jana Hitaya cherishes the letter that he wrote on his return with his new found eyesight. “You gave me light that I had thought was gone forever, you showered me with love and care when these words had ceased to exist for me, you brought a new meaning to the twilight years of my life.. now I look forward to each rising sun.”
For the issueless Sen couple, life has become that much comfortable since Jana Hitaya stepped in. Mostly house-bound, the former senior executive of a multinational, the 81-year-old Sen finds it helpful when Jana Hitaya assists him locate and negotiate rates for the nurse that he needs for looking after his 74-year-old arthiritic wife, who can barely move. Says Mrs. Sen: “They fix our home delivery food supplier, nurses and also drop in frequently to find out how we are doing.”
Harbingers of joy
They are harbingers of joy when they come calling at the home of Bipasha Chowdhury, a 63-year-old lady who is battling cancer. Most of her daily chores are taken care of by her attendants and her younger daughter who stays with her. “But I feel so happy when Jana Hitaya comes over. I look forward to the afternoons that I spend with them, to those moments when I forget even my illness,” she says. It is “rewards” like these that spur them on to newer challenges.
They would now like to set up a day-care centre for the aged. Efforts are now on to look for an accommodation to house a reading room, a corner where they can sit and chat and a small eating place. Also on the anvil is a short-stay home where children could leave their parents when they are vacationing or going abroad.
Jana Hitaya is all about wish fulfilment — for its volunteers who wished to give back something to society and for the seniors who wish for a better life.
Some names have been changed to protect the identity of the persons.
India Beats features stories of the unusual, the exotic and the extraordinary.
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