The best way to know the self is feeling oneself at the moments of reckoning. The feeling of being alone, just with your senses, may lead you to think more consciously. More and more of such moments may sensitize ‘you towards you’, towards others. We become regular with introspection and retrospection. We get ‘the’ gradual connect to the higher self we may name Spirituality or God or just a Humane Conscious. We tend to get a rhythm again in life. We need to learn the art of being lonely in crowd while being part of the crowd. A multitude of loneliness in mosaic of relations! One needs to feel it severally, with conscience, before making it a way of life. One needs to live several such lonely moments. One needs to live severallyalone.

Saturday 12 May 2012

FINALLY, A PLACE FOR GEETA IS IN SIGHT



It was surprisingly good. Though it took more time than it should have, as we were logged out of Delhi for this project or that assignment, when it finally came, it was simply up to the expectations of a place we were looking for Geeta to be relocated to.

Geeta needs a place where people of her age (in 20’s) with physical and mental disabilities can be trained to carry on with their day-to-day lives in proper way as well as can be imparted with some vocational training to earn some livelihood to sustain themselves reducing dependence on others.

We had taken Geeta to the Shaktinagar Centre of the Art for Prabhat/Society for Child Development (http://www.artforprabhat.co.in/index.php/http://www.sfcdindia.org/) in North Delhi during our first visit to the centre to get Geeta assessed by Dr. Madhumita Puri, director of the organization.

I was pinning some hope on the meeting as Dr. Puri was recommended by Sai Padma, a prominent disability activist and a good friend. Dr. Puri assessed that Geeta was fit case for rehabilitation and could be trained in three months to lead her day-to-day life independently.  Now to get it done, we had to get approval from Geeta’s family and Dr. Bhagat, caretaker of the old-age home where Geeta is currently in. But before that, we wanted to visit the facility/hostel where Geeta was to be given lodging.

It was a decent 2-BHK accommodation in Roopnagar, near North Campus of the Delhi University. The facility has means to accommodate nine students like Geeta. At present, there are seven students – four boys and three girls – in the hostel as told by Dr. Puri. Boys and girls are kept in separate rooms.

The living accommodation looked quite good with comfortable beds, separate and clean bathrooms, a good functional kitchen, television and recreation games like carom. A house mother stays with the students throughout. Breakfast is prepared and served in the hostel while lunch and dinner are cooked in organization’s Shaktinagar centre. Students are taken to the centre from the hostel at 9 AM, have training, classes and lunch there. They spend the whole day at the centre and are taken back to the hostel again in the evening where they are served dinner. Sunday is off-day and family members or legal guardians can take their dependents out.


At Rs. 10000 a month for three months, we found it logical. This much can easily be funded on any given day. This visit finalized our decision to relocate Geeta to the place.

Now we need to take approval from her family and Dr. Bhagat. Dr. Bhagat is happy about this initiative. Geeta’s family should not be any problem either as they have already abandoned Geeta to the Badarpur old-age home. The tedious job would be the documentation part as Geeta needs a disability certificate from a government hospital. Then there are other documents related to her guardianship and affidavits from her family.

Anyway, we will get it done. By the next month, we expect Geeta will begin the real journey to meet her new life where she would be able to find company of her co-age people as well as care of a sensitive and learning atmosphere.

It makes sense.  

©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/