It has been a long time since I wrote anything on my blog. Subsequent to the state elections, a death in the family and a (well deserved) break took me away from Chennai for quite some time. What awaited me when I came back was a mailbox flooded with mails, (mostly junk, of course) but one among them brought back a lot of memories.
It was a mail from Udavum Karangal, an organisation started by a man called Vidyakar for the unwanted in the society. The mail was about sponsoring the education of the children of Udavum Karangal; children who have no father or mother, children who have no families, children whose home is Udavum Karanagl, children whose only family is Papa Vidyakar.
I still cannot forget my first visit to Udavum Karangal, especially to some parts of the home. One was a huge hall, neat, clean and devoid of any furniture. That was the home of the babies between the age of one and a half to two and a half.
Through the glass doors, I could see lots of babies in the room, all seated on the floor. Some were lying on the floor looking at the ceiling, some sitting gloomy faced and some playing with toys. The kind of noise and enthusiasm associated with babies of that age group were missing in that room. Even at that age, their faces showed pain, melancholy and sadness. Though I knew the answer, I asked myself, how could small babies sit so quietly? They were not ordinary small babies who were carried, hugged, kissed and loved by their parents. The three women in the room had to take care of all the babies and it was not right to expect them to give personal attention to all the babies all the time. But they tried their best to make the babies happy.
With me was photographer Sreeram. We opened the door and stepped inside the room. What happened next was a scene I still cannot forget. All the babies who were sitting so quietly jumped to their feet and ran towards us, the room was filled with their childlike laughter. It was heart wrenching to see so many babies surrounding you with their hands raised. All of them wanted to be lifted.
We took them one by one. When I carried one baby, the others would tug at my dress and call me with their hands raised. They caught hold of us so tight that we could not keep them down. They just clung to us. They wanted to be hugged and kissed. They were yearning for physical touch and love. When we carried the babies, those who were standing down would hold our legs tightly.
It was then that their Papa Vidyakar entered the room. The moment they saw him, all of them ran towards him. He carried two of them in his hands while others clung to his legs. He sat on the floor so that all of them could climb on to him.
After an hour when we were about to leave the room, they hung on to us not letting us leave the room. As we walked away from the room, I turned back. Outstretched tiny hands were still on the glass door as if pleading us to take them. Those eyes; there was only sadness and disappointment in them.
From there, Vidyakar took us to another room where babies below the age of one lived. If the slightly older babies ran to us, most of these babies crawled on all fours to us, mostly to their Papa Vidyakar and some who had already learnt to walk, walked unsteadily. Vidyakar sat on the floor and the babies crowded on him.
Suddenly we noticed a baby sitting at the far end of the room, sulking. He waved her to come to him but she just sat there looking at him with no smile on her face, and then she fell back with her head banging on the floor. He then got up and walked towards her. "She's very sensitive and obstinate."
As he carried her, she was still sobbing in pain, and tears rolled down her cheeks. It was then that I noticed the shocking truth; she didn't have arms. Her name was Rohini, named after the star of the day she was brought to Udavum Karangal.
More about Rohini in my next blog.
Friends' Update
-
Loading ...Please wait..
Hello
I stumbled on ur blog while i was on UV’’s website. I was making a donation and I was pretty skeptical if this would actually go to the right people. I am not anywhere near UV and dont havemuch of an idea. Reading your recent visit to UV in your blog reallys helps people like me who s got that thin line of confusion. Waiting to read more about Rohini and yes, I will make a difference in someone s life.
Thanks
fathima
This article really made me speechless, it was very touching. thanks a lot for the information.
touching lovely story of rohini
Dear Ms Varier,
I”m shrikanth,from mumbai , preparing to leave for USA for higher studies in engineering .I felt a sudden surge of emotions reading this blog on UDAVUM KARANGAL ..acually i was looking for some info on students life in US & came across ur blog toally by chance…heartening o see & read he plight ofour kids…left unwanted ,uncared for..
i”ll surely do my level best,once i stand on my feet and make a difference in the livfe of aleast 1 of our brothers/sisters at UDAVUM KARANGAL…
while most blogs r full of crap ,thanks a lot for sharing this valuable info with us….
regards-shrikanth,mumbai.
Dear Shoba
Remember reading an article by you on a AID patient sometime back. thank you for ceating awareness thru your writing. It truly touched me.
Just read your recollection on your interviews and couldnt agree with you more! Keep up the good work.
Wonderful and touching. I did also experience similar sort of situation in UK , Coimbatore.
You have done a reallly a good peace of work by sharing your experiance here in this blog…as a person in developmental sector.. i ernestly commend your effort…there is a strong need of such inspirational moves to give a wake up call like thing to motivate kind hearted people to help these children and most importantly… to give a helping hand to dedicated persons like Vidyakar…great job..this is the first time i am entering this blog and happy about that…congrats
Very touching indeed. I wish that in some way, I could transfer my physical love for my own kids to such unloved children. Maybe, when I retire, I”ll make it a point to visit such homes everyday, and be a friend to some kids.
sage.rediffiland.com
Hi Shoba,
Very touching article. I certainly will visit UDK when i plan my next visit to india.
Thanks for the url and email id…
Email id of Udavum Karangal is uk1@airtelbroadband.in]
Address: Udavum Karangal, 460 NSK Nagar, Chennai-600106
website: http://www.udavumkarangal.org
Please let me know the address both the website and the physical one.
Could you please send me the URL/Contact no. of UDK.Its very moving & we want to contribute something for the kids education/upbringing.
Certainly we need more helping hands,
But folks, at the same time we need deft hands which can penalise the irresponsible parents who leave their illegitimate child/children. Organising this as a community task has many different dimensions.
Lastly, we in our family has sore/sad points of time with respect to this UDK administration. Many of us have rang-up the office to inform that we have some physical belongings which we could donate. Sadly none of the bearers turned-up even after a length of time. Hence we diverted the offers to others. May be the administration has to tune-up. I am not sure as to practical difficulties involved for the UDK staff. Hope things improve.
I hope my hands also can join the forces striving to achieve good result.
Ravi sankar
Hi Shobha .. real touching .. I”ve heard ur name, only now erading ur article ..
As long as men like Vidhyakar are there, Humanity will survive ..
I ve always wanted to do something for the under-privileged-especially young children.. It is a few weeks since I have joined in my first Job .. I assure myself that there will be a contribution fm my side to Udavum Karangal-however miniscule it may sound .. small drops constitute an ocean ..
keep blogging abt such heart-rending episodes..
Mixed emotions as I await Rohini’’s story ..
Regards, Jeyshree
Hi Shobha,
That was a touching article. As someone who had similar experience, I know how it feels to be at Udhavum Karanagal. Maybe you can also list their website URL in the article so that more people know about the organisation. The site (which we had developed) can be found at http://www.myhelpinghands.org.
Regards
Ramesg
Thats a nice article. Now I feel I too should have posted something like that when I first visited the place.
It all started with donating some of my old clothes to Udavum Karangal(UdK). I came to know about this org from ”The Hindu”. Then I decided to sponsor a child for education for 1 year, and chose a girl child. She is Vatsalya Vidyakar (all children there get Vidyakar as the last name !!). From then on, I have been sponsoring every years education for her on Diwali day. Last year, me and my wife visted the place, met her, and talked to her for sometime.
Thats something very little from my end towards these children !!
Thank you Shashi Kamate and Rajesh. Of course, I value your comments a lot. You are right Richa, till we change our attitude to adoption, we need lots of Udavum Karangals and Vidyakars to love these unwanted babies.
Indian society is so closed to adoption. We need to give these children a home! Until the taboos on adoption are not addressed we will have this situation again and again.
I read a lof of blogs, on various topics but never replied to one. After reading views on politics, reservations, terrorism i was kind of feeling insensitive to reading. These blogs miss the core - the human being. Everything you do or say or write should be to help human beings be better and happier and healthier(wealthier would be bonus
)
Your blog stood out. It was really touchy. The result, i created a rediff account and am replying to a blog..my first comment. This is the only blog of yours that i read. Will read the others and if i see the human core in your writing , would follow them closely in future as well. I dont know if people read the comments on their posts, but if you do here’’s thanking a ton for making me FEEL it!!
Very moving. Waiting to hear about Rohini.