spotlight: Vinay Krishnan Menon , a first year MBA student
Let me first introduce myself to you. My name is Vinay Krishnan Menon and I am a B.Sc (Maths) graduate pursuing first year PGDM at Amrita School of Business, Ettimadai. I have always been interested in traveling, reading, music and participating in various social activities.
This article about the inmates of Cheshire Homes has been one of my sincere efforts to study the life of handicapped people facing some of the most difficult challenges put forward by nature. Cheshire home is an organization that supports disabled adults by providing shelter and other basic needs of life. I am sure this article will certainly touch at least some of you and encourage you to work towards the social well being of people.
My personal experience at Cheshire home.
I was always curious to know about the life of people who are neglected by their family members. It is this curiosity that made me visit Cheshire homes, which is an organization that supports handicapped people.
It was 10th November, 9 am in the morning when I stepped into the premises of Cheshire homes. When I first entered the gate I saw a van of some television channel that had come there for some serial shooting. The crew was busy with their work trying to capture the life of inmates living there. First, I went to the office and saw one person sitting on his wheel chair talking to some lady. I told him that I wanted to meet the administrator who had gone out to buy some medicines. I sat down on the nearby sofa observing things happening around me. After some 15 minutes I decided to go inside and have a look around. I saw a dinning hall, few inmates talking to each other and some ladies busy with stitching work. I also had a look at the names of various people who had given monitory contributions to support the inmates.
After some time the administrator came. His name was Mr. Gopinathan, an x-army officer who was keen and committed towards working for the betterment of inmates. When I asked him about didn’t he miss his home, he said more than his family members it’s the inmates who require him. So he spends most of his time trying to find out ways to help inmates lead a normal life.
This organization was started in 1996 to protect the cause of handicapped people. It first started its center in Bangalore and then slowly spread to other states. Cheshire home of Trivandrum is the only center in the whole of kerala. The institution gets financial support from Leonard Cheshire International depending on the feasibility of projects, provided the institution agrees to certain laid down procedures. The institution has matured into one of the major centers of Leonard Cheshire International as it was given the privilege to host their 37th Annual General meeting. Two important criteria which are taken into consideration before admitting a handicapped person are (1) extent of his disability and (2) his position with regard to poverty line. The policy is such that they want to give priority to people who need them most. Their major source of funding is through banks, individuals and other institutions working for social well being of people. They have allocated a fixed amount of Rs800 per month to be spent on each inmate for their daily food and medicines. Apart from these, each inmate is provided with a bed, shelf, blanket, and other necessary things like soap, oil etc for his daily needs. The have a small biogas plant to satisfy their energy needs and inmates are encouraged to learn income-generating skills like stitching, craftwork to support themselves. The whole building is divided into 4 blocks each named after a particular place. The management of Cheshire home consists of an administrator and a secretary who interacts with media to create social awareness. Many colleges visit the home and conduct cultural activities to entertain the inmates. I happened to meet the secretary only the next day, as she is a busy lady who manages many other charity institutions too. She was happy to know that nowadays many young people are coming forward to help the weaker sections of society.
Story of Mr.Sundresan
He is an engineer who was earlier working in Mumbai. Due to some accident he broke his back and is completely bedridden. He has to depend on others even to satisfy his hunger and thirst. His health situation is so bad that doctors have given up his treatment, as there is nothing, much which can be done to reduce his pain apart from giving painkillers.
Still he hasn’t given up himself. He spends most of his time reading books and talking to people on a variety of subjects. He is one person with whom I spent a lot of time discussing various social and political issues. When I asked about how does he feel when many eminent personalities come to visit the inmates, he says he has lost faith in them completely. He says everybody is just interested in giving false hopes and none of them ever turn back once they achieve their objective of getting publicity. Instead, he likes to meet people who come there with a true heart to share their feelings. He says people should avoid showing sympathy towards them and do something, which would help them to lead a normal life. Even though he feels slightly disheartened about Cheshire home not being able fund his complete expenses, but if taken from management’s perspective it is impossible to take care of all the inmates needs beyond a certain extent, as there is no major source of regular income.
Story of Nayak
Nayak is a mentally retarded boy who uses a wheel chair to move to different corners of his room. Whenever he sees someone, he gives a big smile as if he knows that person for a very long time. Even though I could hardly communicate with him verbally the very smile on his face made me feel very close to his heart. It’s been a tough experience, which he had to undergo at such an early stage in his life. He was found abandoned on the roadside somewhere in Tamil Nadu and was taken care by some local charity institution until three years ago when he was finally bought into the Cheshire home. Now this is his home and everybody likes him because of his innocence.
Conclusion
This experience has given me a much more deeper understanding of what life means for different individuals in this world. We as human beings are always unhappy about what we don’t have rather than feeling content and lucky about what we already possess. So let’s feel happy about what we have and do something for others to have a small share of it. After all, it’s not a big deal. |
