‘How will it be?’, ‘Will they like me?’, ‘How will I react?’, were just the kind of questions which were in my mind when I entered Mother Teresa’s home in Jangpura. The ‘not knowing’ what’s going to happen feeling, was exciting as well as scary.
Anyhow, up the stairs and through this door lead us to a long corridor, with doors leading to different rooms. The first door led us to a room of children who are 80% physically ok. There were some wounds on their body that were visible ( which were caused by the kids fighting amongst themselves ), but that was about it. They could walk around, run around, talk to you, understand you, scream, shout and run just like any other child.
The next door opened to a big room with a whole lot of cots. The kids in this room were mostly mentally and physically challenged. They needed assistance in anything and everything they had to do. To move, to eat, to sit, or even go to the toilet.
The third room at the end of the corridor was the one that got to me the most. It was full of cots just like the one before…Just with a few more cots in it. Though these cots weren’t for disabled children. This room had new born babies and children under two years old . Kids who have been abandoned!! The first question that came to mind was, ‘ How can people just abandon such little, beautiful, new born, or young cute kids?’
As we walked in.. A whole lot of kids came running and charging at us. They were so very happy to see us. They all wanted to hug us… be around us and not leave our sides. At first I don’t really think I was feeling anything, then the felling of , ‘oh my god, how do I do this!!??’ and then the realisation of how these kids are no different from other kids their age. That whole things from no feeling, to ‘oh my god’, to they are lovely took less than one minute of my time. It was incredible. Sure there were times I felt so bad for some of them, I used to cry after leaving and thank god that he made me the way I am, and gave me the family I have.
The first day we went there, we didn’t really get to do much. We were a little late. As we entered the kids were having their lunch served to them. To my surprise, leaving two kids, all the children were eating by themselves. Mentally or physically challenged or not.
I volunteered to feed one girl called Dolly, while Simran sat and gave the other kids company. She spoke to them and gave them company. A girl called Babita got extremely attached to Simran, while I grew very fond of Dolly. Every time I went there, I would sit with her, help her and feed her. She could understand me perfectly, she just couldn’t reply back because of her disability. Her head was permanently bent to the right, she couldn’t walk or use her hands . She needed constant care. Someone to constantly remind her to straighten her head ( which was very difficult for her ). Even opening her mouth to take food in was an effort….Her brain knew what to do…but it took time for the brain to send the message to the muscle and make her do something. Nobody knew why she was like that….The sister’s believed it was a birth defect…I wasn’t so sure myself.
One day I went to the home and found Dolly missing. I got extremely worried as I had become quite fond of her and knew that she could not manage by herself. It was then I found out that she had gone back to her home. That got me a little more worried for her. Will anyone in her family be able to give her the care she needed? Will anyone have the time or patience for her? To try to understand her or anything she might want. Or just to sit and talk to her. I know that’s what she really wanted. Just someone’s company…for someone to sit and talk to her. But all I could do now, was hope and pray that she would be well taken care of.
After a few visits, it got a bit confusing for us. Now that all the kids knew who we were, they all wanted our attention. Altogether and all at once. We didn’t know who to be with. With one child one minute and another the other. They all used to keep pulling and fighting over us. Which really wasn’t good. It took us sometime to make them all understand that we would manage to spend time with all of them. It was just that they would have to wait and have just a little patience. How do you make any 5, 6 , 7 or 8 year old understand that! That was the time we didn’t know how to handle the kids.
Then came the end of summer and time for both Simran and myself to return to our respective countries. I don’t know about Simran, but I sure felt like it was one of the hardest things I had to do. Leave all those children behind. I could see how they would eagerly wait for us around lunch time. It was the bright few hours of the day for them, when they had someone else apart from the sisters to be with them, play with them, talk to them.
At the beginning, as I mentioned earlier, I used to really thank god that I was the way I was. Had a family to take care of me and my needs, had myself in one piece, didn’t have some one beating me or treating me unjustly. But at the end of the two months, I realised that each one of these children were very special in their own way. They had the will to go on, and the positive attitude that very few adults have. I hope and pray that all these children get adopted to good homes and a few good people who manage to make donations and generous enough to help cure the other children there with the medical help that is needed.
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