In our constant search for icons – looking for individuals of excellence, worthy of emulation – we miss out on real life heroes and heroines, often, within our immediate surroundings just because they lack the halo of the media hoopla and are downright simple but fiercely committed to their cause. They do stupendous work in helping the needy of the society, often at ridiculous rates of remuneration and shun any sort of publicity as it were the plague. Then, what keeps them motivated and committed to their cause? To my mind, it’s their calling from deep within, a passion born out of compassion for fellow human beings and an attitude to help without caring a damn about their own discomfort or difficulty.
Ms. Rajni Parmar is one such person. A shy, ever smiling girl touching 50 and the wife of a brother officer, she’s a ‘Speech Language Therapist’. Her normal day starts at 7 as she has to visit two schools to help the special children, who look forward to being with her. Their love for her and dependence on her, are indeed touching and deep.
I must confess here to having had a quirk in me, many years back and about how I was able to overcome it by a humbling experience that happened in my life. I used to be quite repulsed by deformity in people so much so that I used to studiously keep away from them – an environment centered around my early years in the Holy Angel’s Convent and the Sainik School, both in Thiruvananthapuram and later, in the NDA kept me sheltered ( it was on the same lines that Shashi Kapoor expressed on sighting the charred face of Zeenat Aman, for the first time, in the movie ‘Satyam, Sivam, Sundaram’). It continued till years later in ’93, when my wife went through the harsh devastation of the debilitating illness, SLE (Systemic Lupus Erythmatosis) and ended up with deformities in her hands that I was able to come out of my quirk. And I’m glad that this change did come about.
And now, coming back to the brood of people like Rajni Parmar, I doff my hat in praise of them -born out of utmost respect to their selfless work- because they must definitely be having the following sterling qualities which make them different from us, ordinary mortals, which are:-
(a) Enormous patience
(b) Genuine love for people and
(c) Empathy.
Rajni, tusi great ho!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment