Finding no one around in the hot sun, I ventured into a small hut and enquired....
Me: ‘Aunty, do u know where is this ‘Ananda Illam’?
She: ‘I am not sure if there is any such place here. But there is this, 'Anadai Illam’ (orphan house) ', besides the run down factory. (Saying so she showed me the direction)
Amidst confusion with names (as often happens due to my particularly strong memory), I reached the place that the lady had directed me to. The place had a large sign board which said, ‘ANANDA ILLAM’.
As I opened the gates, there were a group of kids who came running towards me with their arms open. Gladly, I lifted one of them, and asked for his name. The happiness in his face was too pure and serene. With a smile, he replied, “Prem”. Soon, there were more kids around me clinging to my shirt. To be true, I was feeling like 'Mahatma' for a moment. But on a second thought, I pitied the plight of these kids, who were ready to embrace anyone who had come from the world that existed outside their gates. And it was so sad that the outside world had isolated them. As though saying, 'This house is your world....and you don’t deserve a place with us'.
Then I thought about how the lady in the hut had transformed this beautiful place from being an 'Ananda Illam' to an 'Anadai Illam'. It is this attitude that we show towards the homeless around us.....makes them feel homeless in a 'Home for homeless’.
Gladly, I thanked God that I only suffered from the problem of forgetting names, events and things; but not ‘People’...a chronic disorder that most people in this world suffer from.
To be continued...
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