By George Kannanthanam
Bengaluru, Jan 17, 2022: When Mastan rushed to my office this morning on January 17 and told me that he could not sleep last night, I was worried that he was not well.
But it turned out to be an excitement when he told me, “Father, my work at Sumanahalli has paid off. I have never been this happy working for the leprosy affected people. Your message yesterday gave meaning to my 40 years of work here.”
The message I had shared the previous night on the WhatsApp with the Staff was this: “Vijayalakshmi came yesterday and took her Mom Sharada and Grandma today by flight to Kolkata, to her little apartment to take care of them. Sharada had brought her daughter to Sumanahalli 15 years ago when affected by leprosy and everyone left her, including her husband. Sumanahalli school educated her and helped her complete B Com and is employed with TCS. ‘It is my responsibility now to take of my Mom and Grandma.’ Cheers to this great daughter.”
I had captioned the message as SUMANAHALLI MIRACLE. Reading the message, the response from many persons was, Yes it is a miracle.
The Sumanahalli miracle has to be understood in its perspective. The leprosy affected people were chased out of their villages and habitat. They had only two options in life, either commit suicide or escape by running away from the place. The only way for them to survive was to move to the anonymity of a city and live by begging on the streets. There were nearly a million leprosy cases in India every year till the end of the last century.
Sharada was one such unfortunate victim of leprosy and Vijaylakshmi was just an 11-year-old girl who hung on to her mother in that journey from a Tamil Nadu village to Bangalore, unaware of anything that happened around her. Her Father escaped the ordeal and all responsibilities by disappearing from the scene, making things worse for these three vulnerable females.
I remember them coming to the Sumanahalli Society in 2006, referred by someone, seeking a place to just to live in the safety of an institution. A grandma who was healthy, a daughter who already had her disabilities set in with claw hands and a granddaughter just entering her teens.
Vijayalakshmi was admitted immediately to the St Joseph’s School in the campus. We had started the school in 2002 and shifted to a new building in 2004, under the care of the St Joseph’s of Tarbes Sisters. Sr Mary Mascarenhas of the congregation had been fighting for a place for leprosy affected children in the schools around the place, but finally found that our own school was the only solution.
Having passed out the first of the tenth class batches in 2010, the school now has about 300 children from the background of leprosy, HIV and disabilities, along with the poor ones from the neighborhood. We never wanted it to be a leprosy children’s school, rather an integrated school for all. According to Sr Mary, “Children from our campus were not accepted in the schools outside, now they come inside the campus to get quality education, along with our children from vulnerable backgrounds.”
Vijayalakshmi was a bright student. As per her desire, we sent her to St Joseph’s PU College at Chikabellapur, where she chose to study Commerce. Staying in the hostel, she focused on the studies to come out with flying colors scoring 92 percent marks. She had a dream to carry on with her graduation and we got her admitted to Maharani’s College, where she completed her B Com.
Sumanahalli has always tried to fulfill the dreams of the bright students. Our goal was to ensure that the next generation of the leprosy affected persons, would never have to go the street to beg to live. We have several of them who are doing well in their studies. Sharana was one of the first batch of students we admitted to a hostel and now he is second division clerk in the forest department. Lokesh is a lawyer by studies and an actor by profession. Being invited to a wedding recently of the children of former patients of our Society, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Krishna and Jyothy, the bride and the groom were both engineers, one of them working in Infosys.
Vijayalakshmi went on to join TCS and moved to Kolkota. Being a beginner, she earns just around 30,000 rupees per month. But what amazed us was her desire to take her mother and grandmother with her to live with her in her small rented apartment. When she came yesterday to Sumanahalli to take them along she said, “Father, it is my responsibility.They did everything for me. Now it is time to give them back whatever I can.” She does not consider her 83 old granny as a burden or her mother with disabilities, a liability.
I felt very proud. Sumanahalli gave her not just some knowledge through our school, but deep family and social values. In a society, where many ‘normal parents’ find it difficult to expect and get care from their children who earn probably ten times more than this girl, Vijayalakshmi is a role model. We at Sumanahalli are motivated to strive harder to create more of such miracles.
No wonder Mastan could not sleep. He had tears of joy sharing his sense of fulfillment about what Sumanahalli has been able to achieve for the most deprived section of the society. Similar sentiments are shared by many others at the Sumanahalli Society, who sacrificed their life, giving “love, light and life” to the leprosy affected.