Mandala
November 2023
Mandala
Connectivity till the last mile
Benazir Patil, now in Pune, lost her mother to cancer when she was just 22. Subsequently, she received her doctorate in the domain of public health, with a special focus on policies and program implementation.
She discovered that: • No senior citizen ever wants to live in an old age home.
• Every senior citizen wants to live and age in their own home, amid their loved ones, family, and friends.
• Each and every age group in our country has some kind of family-based or government served support system, starting from newborn babies to young children, adolescents, youth, and as well as women, but nothing of this sort exists for older people in 2007. She calls it “Last Mile Connectivity,” which means remaining connected with the elderly till their last mile of life. This includes care and support in their day-to-day life, healthcare services at home and within the community, and linkage with different social security schemes and programmes for long-term financial support and reduction of expenditure on healthcare services. More than anything else, she and her team ensure that the old never feel uncared for.
She decided to:
• Turn ageing into a positive experience, where
the senior citizens feel happy, content, and wanted.
• Prioritise those who are most vulnerable and
needy: the ones residing in slums and remote
villages.
• Create a system wherein it is possible to
sensitise the communities and youth regarding
the challenges senior citizens face in old age.
• Start providing love care, support, and services
to the senior citizens in their own homes.
Benazir’s primary approach is to extend all of the
above through companionship and friendship.
To this end, she started the NGO Vriddha Mitra
Kudos, Benazir, for bringing the much-needed smile to the faces of our elderly.
Brahmavidya—a beacon of hope, healing, and
transformation
During the early years of the 20th century, an English gentleman named Edwin John Dingle went to Tibet and learnt Brahmavidya, a science dedicated to yoga, esoteric knowledge, and liberation. After completing his studies and practices for over nine months in Tibet, he went out into the world to teach it under the term Mental Physics. He came to be known as Ding Le Mei. Guru Jyotirmayananda, the founder of the Brahmavidya Sagar Sangh, learnt the science of Brahmavidya from Guru Ding Le Mei and he started the Brahmavidya Sanstha in 1977.
Shri Jayant Divekar, an IIT engineer and a management postgraduate from IIM Bangalore also learnt this science. He is the vice president of a leading business conglomerate in India and an eminent personality in the modern world. His commitment to Brahmavidya is tremendous. During his six-year study, which was mostly online, he translated all three levels of the Brahmavidya syllabus (around 1500 pages) into, Marathi, his mother tongue. It has now been translated in other languages too, with many more being planned.
A Jyoti Kamboth from Mumbai, a student of Sri Divekar, who is now a teacher in the organisation, shares, “I was in the seventh or eighth standard when I started getting dandruff and a kind of white substance on my eyelashes. I also developed a red roughness on my cheeks which worsened into a puss-like ailment. My
parents tried allopathy, homeopathy, ayurveda, and even unani medicine, but nothing changed. I learnt to live with it. Then in 2010, I got to know about the Brahmavidya class from a friend. I joined the class, and I realised I had entered the greatest of all places—a palace of light, love, and healing. I learnt to take responsibility for my life instead of blaming circumstances. Following this, I never realised how and when the ailments on my cheeks and eyelashes vanished, with only a pink blush remaining on my face!” She learnt that being potentially divine, man has a lot of power to overcome his difficulties and problems.
About two hundred teachers are well trained in the discipline of Brahmavidya and can provide able guidance. They are teaching Brahmavidya in more than 300 centres in India and abroad, guiding and uplifting others.
By Jamuna Rangachari
Conquering disability to build an able world
Nazim Khan was born in Bihar with his left hand affected by polio. Nobody would play with him, and even his family members avoided taking him out with them. However, instead of giving in to being a victim of circumstances, he decided to study hard and prove himself. Nazim moved to Kolkata to his aunt’s house to get more exposure. Most of his studies were done at home, but since he wanted to attend school, Nazim asked his tuition teacher to act as his guardian to help him get admission. Today, he has a Master’s in Social Work.
In Kolkata, Nazim joined Mobility India, an organisation dedicated to rehabilitating the disabled. He started giving physiotherapy education to disabled children by going door to door and also informing them about government facilities tailored specially for them.
In 2010, Nazim left Mobility India and joined the Tomorrow Foundation. Due to some reason, Mobility India closed down in 2016. All the guardians of the disabled children who were members of Mobility India came to Nazim’s house in Kolkata and requested him to open a rehabilitation centre for their children. Though he lacked money, Nazim had oodles of courage. He requested all his friends from the rehabilitation field to help him. With their aid, he started GRIRR (Garden Reach Institute for the Rehabilitation and Research) in 2017. Within three months of its launch, Nazim held a surgery camp in collaboration with ISHWAR (International Society for Human Welfare and Rehabilitation), where five children with deformities underwent corrective surgeries without any external funding. Today, these children are living normal lives, which is a special moment for Nazim. Nazim wants to take his services to remote areas, especially villages, and expand his services to different states as well as abroad. He does not want others to feel less able, as he had at one stage. He is trying to do his best, and the Universe too is aiding him in all areas, slowly but steadily.
Nazim Khan
- By Jamuna Rangachari