Sadhana Tai Amte – The Decoction and Ladoos of Love

The last lap of the journey involved hours of travel across some long stretches of dusty arid land. The wind blew thick clouds of scorching heat and sandy dust into our big four-wheeler which rolled and jumped and bumped, across and over unruly roads and roadless expanses. Finally, before sunset, when we reached our destination, I felt as if we had chanced upon a big and beautiful oasis. We had then reached the banks of the Narmada – before an ashram-like, humble dwelling inhabited by none other than the great Baba Amte and Sadhana Tai Amte. The year was 1994. The place, Kasaravad in Madhya Pradesh.

That night when the lights were switched off and the whole ashram lay asleep, I was suddenly awakened by a fit of cough (I was already suffering from a severe throat infection since evening). Within minutes the bulbs in my room went aglow. I turned around to see who it was. Sadhana Tai Amte. She had brought me a glass of warm water. She sat near me on my bed, stroked my back, asked me to take it easy, said it was all because of the heat and dust of the journey. Later she went into the kitchen, prepared some decoction (I don’t know what it contained – I think only mothers and grandmas know what such home-remedies are really made of) and made me drink it to the last drop.

All the while she was speaking to me on a lot of things – about Anandwan, about Baba, about life in the Narmada valley, etc. After some time, when I felt quite relieved, she bid me lie down, pulled the blanket over me, switched off the lights and went away saying I would be perfectly okay by morning. For the first time, after I had left home for Anandwan a few months ago, that night, I felt as if I was back home and in the presence of my mother. I must say that I was then beginning to understand the real Sadhana Tai, was then beginning to understand why that simple and unassuming woman was adored and revered by so many as if she were their own sister or mother, was then beginning to understand how Baba Amte was able to build such a vast and mighty empire of love and compassion. 

Soon I found out that rendering hospitality, feeding guests, tending to the sick, cheering up the depressed – and all such things she did always with an innate and inimitable warmth of heart seasoned with a pinch of creative humour. Her humility, humanness and humour had a tender magic of their own. Years later, in 2007, when I, along with my mother, visited Anandwan the second time, I found that age and work had worn her out a lot, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that the spirit within her was still the same. Before our return to Kerala, during the over two years of our stay there, we, myself and my mother, had the fortune to know Tai too closely and to our heart’s content.  We found the aged and ailing Tai always too full of sincere care and concern for all others.

On the morning of our last day in Anandwan, in 2009, when my mother and elder sister entered her prayer room to bid her farewell, they were surprised to see her waiting there for them too anxiously. On that day of the festival of Lord Ganesha (The Elephant God) she was then distributing ladoos after offering it to the deity. She had told me the day before that she would be waiting there for them then to give those special ladoos and since they hadn’t turned up she was getting anxious, minute by minute, whether the ladoos would be exhausted before they arrive. As soon as she saw them she greeted them the most excitedly and offered them the ladoos with immense relief and joy and sent one for me too. The bitterness of her decoction or the sweetness of her ladoos linger no more in my tongue, but the ‘sweetness sans any bitterness’ of her character will keep my heart ever afresh.   

A Profile of the Personality

Once, at a family wedding, Muralidhar Devidas Amte (now famously known as Baba Amte, the Great Humanitarian) saw Indu Guleshastri (Sadhana), the younger sister of the day’s bride, silently engrossed in helping an overburdened servant woman. He was highly impressed by the compassion for the lowly, the dedication to work and the courage to break conventions of this simple and silent Brahmin girl which become plainly evident from this act of hers. He was quick to discern that she was no ordinary Brahmin girl and that she would be to him the perfect life-partner. Without any inhibitions, this till-then-ascetic, at once, made his intentions known to the mother of the girl. It took her mother and the others a while to digest this shocking but pleasurable truth. But the girl, Indu Guleshastri, had just no reservations in accepting this extra adventurous and out-of-the-ordinary young man as her husband. So, on the 18^th of December 1946, their marriage got solemnized. Ever since, she had been a great source of inspiration, strength and support to him in all his activities.

It was with the support and help offered by his wife that the young Amte boldly gave up his legal practice, renounced all his property and set up the Shram Ashram (Hermitage of Labour) for inter-caste living and manual work which was to become a forerunner to all his future projects including Anandwan. He organized the social outcastes into unions, cooperatives and societies to improve their abysmal socio-economic conditions. He worked as secretary of sixteen such associations. All this while, his devoted wife spent her time tending to the harijan women and children and fending off a plague of poisonous snakes and scorpions around the cooking area and under the cot. She had to even pay the severe price of exile from her own family for this living with the outcasts. But without any regrets, without any stepping back, with selfless dedication she ever walked forward with her husband and remained the silent spirit behind all his missions. Over the years she even served under various official capacities from working as an accountant to shouldering responsibility as an Assistant Secretary of their Trust (Maharogi Sewa Samiti). Throughout her career as a social worker, she was popularly known as ‘Tai’ (meaning ‘Sister’ in Marathi) because of her genuine friendliness, utter humility and heartfelt concern for one and all.

As a tribute to her greatness, at even National and International award presentation ceremonies Baba would always start his acceptance speech by firstly addressing his wife (Smt. Sadhana Amte) rather than start by addressing such honourable dignitaries as the President, the Prime Minister etc. Her selfless service for the leprosy-stricken, the physically challenged and the downtrodden have been honoured with various awards like ‘Chaturang Puraskar’, ‘Kasturba Gandhi Seva Puraskar’, ‘Matoroshri Puraskar’, ‘Dalit Mitra Puraskar’, ‘Millennium Award’ and ‘Grahini-Sakhi-Sachiv Puraskar’. Born on 5^th May 1926, in an aristocratic, Brahmin family, having lived a selfless and simple life as a true ‘woman of the soil’, Sadhana Tai Amte breathed her last on 9^th July 2011.

SIVA – ROLLING AHEAD SKILLFULLY

Siva is just 17 years old but speaks as if he has crossed 70. “If I hadn’t been rescued and nurtured here,” says Siva, “I would just have been any illiterate lad still doing street circus or worse still, now that street circuses don’t hold the same charm as in old days and are no more a sure means of survival, who knows I might even have ended up as some anti-social element out there on the streets, peddling drugs, pick-pocketing, etc.”

But thanks to the sincere efforts of an NGO, this teenager has with his roller skates on, rolled out over the years to a very bright side of society, and keeps earning glories not only for himself but also for his guardian organization. 2014 saw him earn 1st place in Ernakulam District Roll Ball Skating Championship (Junior), 3rd place in Kerala State Roll Ball Championship (Junior) and 4th place in National Roll Ball Championship (Junior). Well, this isn’t the whole story. His talents far exceed these achievements. A deeper look into his past will make things more clear.

Siva doesn’t have any memories of his mother because she had passed away early on. His father was a drunkard who had mercilessly employed him and his brother Dharma in street circus. Siva still recollects how scared he used to be the early days when his father would delicately balance him on top of a long stick. “A fall – and that would have been the end of me,” says Siva, “or perhaps if I survived the fall, I would have been destined to live the life of a cripple with some broken limbs, ribs or spine. I have a sister who is lame of both lower limbs… we haven’t lived together much… she was handed over by my father to a rehabilitation home years ago… but I understand how difficult it is to live like that, with such physical challenges.”

Siva’s father, a native of Andhra Pradesh, along with his sons and a few others kept moving from place to place, like nomads do, in search of fresher pastures for their street circus. And thus, passing through Tamil Nadu, they stepped into Kerala. Siva’s father used to treat his children so badly that he would spend the money he collected by risking the lives of his kids on street  circus, to meet his own drinking needs rather than in providing enough food to the kids. Siva remembers that whenever some passers-by were not kind enough to give them something to eat, he and his brother have had to lie down with a hungry stomach many a night.

However, in 2004, when Siva was six years old, things took a dramatic turn. All at once, curtains fell on their misery when Police rescued Siva and his brother from the clutches of their insensitive father and handed them over to Janaseva Sisubhavan, an NGO based in Aluva (Ernakulam District, Kerala State) working to rehabilitate street children. The NGO at once obtained legal permission to look after the children, their father not being in a position to provide them good nourishment, shelter and education. At Janaseva Sisubhavan, the brothers not only got these basic requirements met, but also happened to enjoy a hitherto-unknown world of love and laughter, friends and games. Shri Jose Mavely, the founder of Janaseva Sisubhavan, whom the children fondly call as Jose Uncle, although not a man of much formal education, had great vision, sensitivity and skill enough to harness the potential talents of each of his children. It didn’t take him long to find out that Siva and his brother Dharma had inborn inclination for a variety of arts and sports, and that if groomed up and trained sufficiently well, they will come up with some wonderful achievements. And, much to their own delight, over the years, the two little brothers grew up proving their Jose Uncle right at every turn.

As a child, the multi-talented Siva’s stage skills ranged from cinematic dance to folk dance, from mimicry to drama, from mono-act to elocution. His sporting talents are spread across a range of games like cricket, football, basketball, handball, athletics, etc. But his focus is now more on roll ball, roller skating cricket, etc., any sport which involves the use of roller skates. Once Shri Jose Mavely invited a great roller skater and international umpire, Shri P. A. Alaxander to Janaseva and requested him to demonstrate and introduce the art and sport of roller skating to his children. After a couple of years when Shri Alexander returned to Janaseva he was surprised to find that one of the children not only still remembered in detail certain nuances of roller skating balance that he had previously taught them just casually, but also showed exceptional balance in skating even after such a long break. That was Siva. Shri Alexander knew at once that Siva is capable of going a long way up. And, Siva’s Jose Uncle didn’t hesitate even a bit then to hire none other than Shri Alexander himself to coach the boy to success.

Today, Siva goes from place to place, Erode, Pune, etc., not as a nomadic street circus player but as the captain of his prestigious team of players. He loves to play as a goal keeper in roll ball and as a wicket keeper in roller skating cricket. He gives credit for his success to his coach Alexander, his Jose Uncle and many others at his school and at Janaseva who have over the years been helping and encouraging him to play consistently well. He passed 10th standard from MAHS, Nedumbassery and is now a student of Government HSS, Chengamanad, presently awaiting his 11th standard results. Besides pursuing his studies and taking part in various sporting events at the same time, he is also engaged in imparting district level training to several other promising juniors in his favorite sports, roll ball and roller skating cricket.

Siva’s father who is now a much reformed man visits his children at Janaseva once in a while. He says: “If not for this Institution, how bad it would have been with my children. I couldn’t teach my children anything, I was just putting their lives at stake. But my children have taught me now many things. It’s Janaseva and my children who have opened my eyes.” Siva now finds it a bit difficult to communicate with his father in his mother tongue, Telugu. “But,” says Siva, “real communication takes place from heart to heart. And, now that my father has one, what’s the problem between us?”One wonderful thing about Siva is that he is not at all affected by any of his achievements. He doesn’t nurture any big dreams, but isn’t afraid the least to take up any great challenges. He is an easy go, humble and simple teenager who has already learnt well to look at life from varied angles. He just wants to roll his life ahead with such fun and ease as does he when on his roller skates.

RAJA – HE CAME, HE SAW, HE CONQUERED

Raja lost his mother when he was just a child. As a 5 year old kid he had to pull his leprosy-stricken father along the streets on a low wheeled hand-cart begging for alms. But these were just the beginning of a miserable existence for this poor little lad from Salem in Tamil Nadu. Soon he landed up in the hands of a beggar mafia in Kerala. What was until then a life of poverty and hunger now turned into a life of torture and silent endurance for this little one.

  

Raja recollects: “There were 15 to 20 of us kids under this person, our gang master Chinnaswamy who used to travel in a car. We would be sent out begging to different locations, in small groups. At the end of the day each one of us needed to hand over to Chinnaswamy the entire amount collected. Each one of us was required to fetch more than Rs. 100 a day. Rs. 50 or less meant the kid would be tied to a pillar and his thighs would be poked with a hot iron rod. Plucking out nails and hair, poking the skin with burning cigarette butts etc. were just some minor punishments meted out to us. I was threatened to fork out at least Rs. 100 a day or be prepared to lose my father. One day when I could bring in just around Rs. 50, my eyes were rubbed with chili powder and a hot iron rod was brandished across my face. The tortures that I and some of the kids out there had to suffer were terrible. There was just no way we could run away and escape from his clutches since Chinnaswamy and his men always had an eye on all our movements. One day when I was around 8 years of age, I gathered enough courage to run away and escape once and for ever from the clutches of that horrible mafia, though not knowing where to go next, not knowing what to do next.”

And, that was a run indeed for this little lad… a run into a new life, a run into a world of love and joy, a run into a life of meaning, dignity and success as never experienced or even dreamt of before. A kind hearted bookseller had spotted this boy in Thrissur bus stand and had at once informed Shri Jose Mavely a social worker running a rehabilitation home in Aluva for street children. The boy was standing there heaving and weeping after having completed the run of his life. There were several marks of torture on his body. Once Shri Jose Mavely took hold of Raja, things began to change dramatically for this boy, although it took him a long time to come out of the trauma of the tragedies that he had suffered over the years. Shri Jose Mavely’s NGO Janaseva Sisubhavan opened up a new world of family and friends, love and peace, fun and games for this hitherto unfortunate lad. The NGO gave him primary education for a year and later admitted him to a nearby school, NSS HSS Parakkadavu, to provide him mainstream education.

Himself a sportsman, it didn’t take Shri Jose Mavely long to spot the sporting talents of Raja. Encouraged and supported, soon Raja began to excel in a variety of sports including basketball and football. He started winning trophies and medals in several local and district level events. Shri Jose Mavely saw the need to give his children including Raja proper training to harness their full sporting potential and started the Janaseva Sports Academy in 2008. The Academy brought several former national and state level players to give coaching to the children. Thus Raja was fortunate enough to get coaching from former football players Shri C. C. Jacob and Shri Soly Xavier. And, promisingly enough, as a 14 year old, Raja made it to the Kerala State Sub Junior Football Team.

The icing on the cake came for this football champ in 2013, when he was just an eleventh standard student. The Central Bank of India offered him, along with his friend Velmurugan, also a product of Janaseva, employment on the basis of their talent in football.  Today, he works for Central Bank of India at its Angamaly Branch, plays football for his Bank, stays in a rented house close by, rides his own bike and enjoys a life of independence, content and self-dignity much to the envy of many other youngsters of his age, but best of all, he hasn’t forgotten the roots that stood him in good stead. With a sense of gratitude oozing out from his eyes, soaked in utter humility, he speaks his heart out: “It is told that I was born in 1994. But I think that I was really born the moment Jose Uncle (Shri Jose Mavely) took me into his arms. If not for Jose Uncle, Janaseva Sisubhavan, my school, my football coaches, there wouldn’t have been this Raja. I owe a lot to all of them. Yes, there is still a long way for me to go and I wish to play as much as I can at various higher levels. At the same time I understand that there are many more kids out there like I was before who need to be taken care of. Janaseva is doing a great work and I also want to support it in whatever little way I can. Tomorrow I may get married and set up a family for myself, but that will not in any way reduce the intensity of my bond with Janaseva. Janaseva is my home and family, and it shall be so forever. Jose Uncle is nothing short of a parent, guru and God to me.”

If the very legs that were beaten up and burned many a time while in the clutches of the beggar mafia, kick started a glorious life of football on the grounds of Janaseva, credit for it goes not only to Jose Uncle, Janaseva and all others as Raja puts it, but also to his own talent, hard work, determination and love of the sport.