Sometimes India is called the Land of Pearls ...a rather romantic evocation....yet this last week, I keep coming across programs and articles about modern day India which are absolutely heart wrenching and haunt the mind, brutally realistic and far from romanticism.
This one was about the mentally ill in India, where it is still seen as a giant social stigma. Because of this many families simply abandon anyone with a mental problem where they wander the streets untended and uncared for, with no medical treatment. The program estimated there could be as many as 60 million Indians with mental problems.
It showed many people in very disturbed states ....sometimes with their children watching on helplessly.
As often happens, in the midst of an account of such suffering, there was one bright light in the programme. This was about a young Brahmin called Naryanan Krishnan, who has taken a position about this. From a wealthy Brahmin background, and facing a very lucrative career as a successful chef, Naryanan had a life changing experience in 2002 when he saw an old starving man in the streets of Madurai trying to eat his own excrement.
It caused him to take a position that he would help feed the mentally ill in Madurai, where he now takes care of about 400 people on a regular and daily basis. He has founded the Akshaya Trust which is publicly funded and has now managed to erect a building to provide shelter too.
He has been severely criticised by traditional Brahmins who highly disapprove of his physical contact with the Untouchables. In response, Naryanan said...
" they are human, I am human,, they are flesh and blood, I am flesh and blood"
What moves me about this is manyfold ...one is for his sentiments and his work, and another because it just demonstrates so clearly how one individual can influence so many others around them...can really make a difference....and how one strong minded person can be catalytic in inspiring other to rally too.
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