World Elders’ Day at Karunashraya

One year old. That’s how old my daughter, Maansi, has turned today. We kept thinking of what we should do to celebrate this first and major milestone in her life. Music has been so much a part of my life that it only seemed natural that there should be lots of it on this special day too. I spoke to a few other friends who are part of Sonata’s Josh band to check out if we could do a music show together. We decided to do a simple show for the inmates of Karunashraya, a hospice on Airport Road, Bangalore. In fact, this was a program that we had been planning for several months now, but we finally decided to go ahead and do it on Oct 1st – incidentally the World Elders’ Day too.

Karunashraya, for those who have not been there, is a beautiful place with an amazing blend of simplicity and serenity. We were welcomed by Mr. Kishore Rao, the Managing Trustee, who gave us a brief introduction about Karunashraya and the work being done there.

The Karunashraya team, along with my dear friend Anna of iVolunteer, had organized everything beautifully and we had a lovely stage by the side of a beautiful stone pool with fishes. We had our audience all around the pool – most of them in wheelchairs, some of them on their beds and the staff sitting on the steps. I can’t describe what it feels to see a tired face light up in recognition when a favourite song is played or the joy that I felt when I saw an old lady lying on her bed clapping her hands in time to the music. Our entire Josh band enjoyed singing and performing for this truly special audience. We had requests for old Raj Kumar songs as well as the latest hip numbers and the band obliged them all. Our joy was doubled when a few inmates came up and sang for us too!

Behind all the laughter and the music, one could sense the presence of that unspoken something too. Pain… Almost every inmate at Karunashraya lives with pain in some form or the other and yet, what we felt after spending time with them was not despair. What we felt, was deep thankfulness for the lives we have. For the health we have and take for granted. For our loved ones who are there for us through the good and not-so-good times. Gratitude and admiration for the goodness in human beings that makes people at Karunashraya reach out to other suffering people in such simple, yet profound ways. To help individuals live their last days with dignity as Mr. Kishore Rao so simply and succinctly put in. What a cause to dedicate one’s career and life to!

We came away completely humbled by these brave people who smiled and applauded our show through their own pain. Also thought–provoking was the attitude of the entire Karunashraya staff who are so cheerful despite being in such close quarters to death and so much pain. The selflessness and patience that the entire Karunashraya team has, is admirable and all of us in the corporate world would do well to learn a thing or two about commitment and dedication to one’s work from them.

The Karunashraya staff had prepared a simple and delicious lunch topped off by some yummy fruit cake given by the parents of one of the patients. We were really touched when he shared that his son who had not been responding for several days had shown some positive signs and was responding after our show! The cake was his gift to the entire Josh band. On that sweet and happy note, all of us went home – enriched and blessed by what we had shared and experienced. I couldn’t have asked for more for my daughter on her special day.

Kalpana Purushothaman, Bangalore
October '05