Spirituality can bind us, spirituality can blind us too…
Spirituality can be used as a medium to make your life
overly ritualistic and superstitious even or can be used as a medium to become
a better person and do good.
We did just that today at Hollywood Gurudwara, most of us
had never been to a Gurudwara and experienced the beautiful culture of “Langar”
– serving food and doing seva. Today, our kids heard a “paath”, had a dupatta/
cloth covering their heads, served food and ate along with our special friends
(mentally challenged adults in the age group of 20 – 45) from Ngo Navshitij.
The most beautiful part was our Navshitij friends put up a play on Organ
donation. What a lovely play and what elaborate costumes they wore!
I didn’t know much about organ donation but this play made
me curious and want to research the basic facts, what can be donated, how, what
are the credible ngos, myths around this? Organ donation can be of 2 types –
Live donation & Deceased or Cadaver donation. In India only 0.08 persons
per million population (PMP) donate whereas that rate is as high as 20 PMP in
developed countries. You can donate your kidney, liver, lungs, heart, pancreas
and much needed cornea, skin and bones too. There are still myths surrounding
this such as can you be too old, too young or not healthy enough to donate
which need to be dispelled. We gave handouts to all kids educating on these basic
facts.
Now something about our NGO Navshitij – Dr Neelima Desai
started this when her younger daughter Aditi was born mentally challenged. She
realized that just giving a roof and food is not enough for mentally challenged
adults, they need to be loved, intellectually stimulated and engaged and
Navshitij does this so wonderfully! They participate in treks (they have been
trekking to the Himalayas 7 times already!!), conduct traffic awareness
programs on the street, organize & compete in drama competitions, make
incredible chocolates and candles for sale, go for lovely vacations in India as
well as abroad, I am amazed at how the Dr Neelima always comes up with creative
ways to engage our special friends! In fact our friends were so excited about
todays event that they woke up at 5 am and got ready!
(If you would like to help this ngo please visit our website
www.indiacharity.org to see their
‘needs list” under tab NGO database. Also tab NGO stories has a lovely story on
Shalakha and how Navshitij helped her gain self confidence and new purpose in
life)
We ended the activity by distributing Dr Prakash Amtes DVDs
to all the children, an inspiring Marathi movie (with English sub titles) and a
must see for kids as well as parents.
A special thanks to Jasleen who tirelessly and selflessly
worked so hard and helped us co-ordinate with the Gurudwara, got the required
permissions and even brought goodies for our friends.
Joy of giving week is from Oct 2nd to Oct 8th,
now called “Daan Utsav” in India. When we served food to our Navshitij friends
and they had the biggest smiles, kept saying ‘mast jevan’ (meaning ‘lovely food’
in marathi), kept saying ‘thank you’ repeatedly and when Aditi kept squealing
loudly in delight & clapping her hands every time we gave her a compliment,
we all felt a certain peace in our hearts and truly understood the “joy of
giving”.
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