Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Beyond one's misery
|
Vasuda Ravichandran is touched by her domestic help's gesture to the tsunami victims
|
'Vasuda: People whom we normally shun, associate with drink and squaior, and look upon as perpetrators of crime, have become heroes and have put us to shame.'
AT A time like this, when tsunami has wreaked havoc in the lives of many, two kinds of stories emerge. Stories of survivors and of those who succumbed. I would like to narrate a story that Sampa, my housemaid, told me about a slum colony called Arasu in Jayanagar.
Like other slums, this one too is the same. The same poverty, alcoholism, unemployment, frustration and filth. But the two sisters Sampa and Indra looked beyond their own misery when they watched the trauma of the survivors. They rallied the people of their area together and struck on a community project, a way of reaching out to the victims.
The whole community pitched in with whatever it could, either in kind or in cash. Fifty women got together, turned the street into a central kitchen, and hired stoves to prepare 5,000 rotis. They stayed up during the nights and put together a package of rotis, onions, garlic, sambar powder, packets of rice, dal, a set of clothes, and a set of vessels. About 15 young men from the area drove a truckload of relief material to Velankanni.
All this came spontaneously, without any prompting from any local leader or NGO. People whom we normally shun, associate with drink and squalor, and look upon as perpetrators of crime, have become heroes and have put us to shame.
When a bigger disaster looks at you in the face, your problems become trivial. That's exactly what happened here. For a couple of days their own problems were put on the backburner. Compassion was their motivator.
When I asked Sampa how they could afford to carry out this monumental feat, pat came her reply: "Akka, we decided to go without food for a day."
I was left speechless.
Sound Off! is your column. If you want to get something off your chest, get connected at bangaloremetro@thehindu.co.in or write to us at MetroPlus, The Hindu, 19&21, Bhagwan Mahaveer Road, Bangalore 560001.
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
|
