Aarambh

Before I joined Aarambh, all I knew is that it was a student-driven initiative, not an NGO, where the students had to go to the Tata Memorial Hospital every week with new activities that would keep the children (cancer patients) interested. I am known to be soft-hearted and understanding by nature. Therefore, I believed I had the patience and gentleness to interact with the patients. In a way I was correct and yet, I was so wrong in so many ways.

 

Every Friday I enter the hospital with a new optimism that maybe today we'll get a better response from the children. Yet, I leave after three hours with an ambivalent sense of despair and awe. Despair, because they try so hard to enjoy the activity despite their limitations that I wonder if they are putting on a display of interest for our sake. Awe, because they are filled with energy and enthusiasm every time we visit and want to do everything at once – be it drawing, playing cards or pottery – dragging us with them to the designated games cupboard and pointing at the games they'd like to play.

 

I never pity their condition because pity is for the weak and battling Leukaemia is no mean feat. Instead, I grow with the children and learn with them the art of making the most out of what we've got.

 

 

As the years go by we as humans have become more and more self-centred and while we are cognizant about this downward spiral…we haven't done anything to prevent it. The end result can be seen today: we have become selfish and self-centered. And we NEED to change that. We need to acknowledge how blessed we are to be born healthy. We need to change so many things about ourselves…and somehow, I get the feeling that Aarambh will be my catalyst for change.

 

Shubhangi Dutta