Saving A Mighty Heart

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And this is how seemingly impossible stories are born. An American book about children in India, on a tour across the country results in a  chance meeting between two disparate worlds in a small village and what emerged from it is..this.

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“I met  little Deepa one evening at the village along with other children. The nurse introduced us and asked me to feel her heart.  As I placed my hand on her heart, there was a mixture of terror at what I was feeling and also compassion for the spirit of the one holding that challenging heartbeat. I knew that death was waiting just outside the door.I felt too helpless to fix anything. I left the village,  for Dr Spock’s Baby and Child Care in India, book tour. Once I got on the train and crawled into my bed,I realized the man in the next bunk was having real problems breathing. He was struggling all night with trying to breathe and could not rest. The next morning in our conversation, I found myself telling him that a doctor I know in Trivandrum could help him and also told him about the little girl with a hole in her heart, I had left behind in the village. He got himself treated the next day and proper treatment began. Later, I got an email from him.  His good friend Dr. Richard Saldanha, at Sri Ramachandra Hospital, Chennai (one of the best pediatric cardiology facilities) would do the surgery for the child and do it for free! We rushed to make all of the necessary preparations including getting money to support the transportation and her family for the next several weeks.”

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These words belong to Mary Morgan (http://unboxedwriters.com/2012/11/mary-morgan-on-dr-spock-life-and-love/), activist and wife of the late author Dr Benjamin Spock. And this story like many others in her life demonstrates  that every meeting could be designed to serve a purpose, to give or take something. Dr Spock’s legacy, she insists was not just to write books for children but to help them where ever possible.  And the girl in question that she is trying to help during her brief visit to India, is a nine-year- old named Deepa, from Gengapuram, near Chennai. Despite the serious nature of her ailment, she could not be treated  for years because of  poverty.

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Oliver Jabanandan, an activist at the child’s village adds, “The child studies in the fourth standard and belongs to a Dalit family and poverty and discrimination are not new to her. “ Mary adds, “The family is very poor and had given up.. thinking they could do nothing for her and could not afford the luxury of the costly surgery. After meeting her, I contacted Robert Needlman (The co-author of Dr Spock’s Baby and Child Care in India) and others who agreed to support her in this journey. She has now been medically evaluated and the surgery will be scheduled in a week or two.  Even though her surgery is free,  we have applied for government grants for other expenses. The government grants fall Rs 70,000 short of the Rs 200,000 needed for her transportation, post operative care and medication before and after surgery.”

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Showing us what real generosity means even within limited means, A Amstrong, the founder of  http://www.earthways.co.uk/nila_home.html and also  an integral part of the developmental activities in the village shares, “At the village, we have  started an English  medium  school  for kids like Deepa  and with the help from donors across the world, we have been able to construct a  building for the school.There are seven teachers  and I am able to pay their salary with the help of my wife’s salary and my  own. Some of the time I am not able to pay them regularly. We pray that we get a sponsor to help us with that. Our  school children need good drinking water. We need a bore well in the school premises. For 11 years, with the help of an activist and donor Mr.Volker,  we had been giving breakfast to the Dalit children who were  malnourished. Every year we fed 30 children but due to unavoidable reasons, he cannot help any more. The government gives the afternoon meal to the children, parents give dinner, it would  help the children if we manage to give them, breakfast.”

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Of the people who have come together to help the child, Mary says, “We are just walking through each step, pretending that we did the walking. When actually we did nothing.  There was, and always is, something much greater leading this caravan.We need to raise the money before the surgery can be done, which is now scheduled for mid December. The paper work is being completed now and funds need to be sent in as soon as possible. Deepa’s little spirit is very brave. And very grateful to have this second chance to live.  Just to see her opening to a new life, is so wonderful.”

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Name of the account: NILA HOME TRUST

427011000372.

Nature of account: Current

Name of the  bank: ING Vysya bank

Name of the branch: Tiruvannamalai.

IFSC CODE: VYSA0004270.

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Reema Moudgil has been writing on art, theatre, cinema, music, gender issues, architecture and more in leading newspapers and magazines since 1994.  Her first novel Perfect Eight ((http://www.flipkart.com/perfect-eight-9380032870/p/itmdf87fpkhszfkb?pid=9789380032870&_l=A0vO9n9FWsBsMJKAKw47rw–&_r=dyRavyz2qKxOF7Yuc )won her an award from the Public Relations Council of India in association with Bangalore University. She also edited Chicken Soup for Indian Woman’s Soul and runs  unboxedwriters.com.  She  writes art catalogues and has scripted a commissioned documentary or two. She has exhibited her paintings in Bangalore and New York,  taught media studies to post graduates and hosts a daily ghazal show Andaz-e-Bayan on Radio Falak.