Aakashaparavagal-Birds of the Air

Imagine going out on an outing with your family, getting lost, and not being able to get back home because your memory has shut down and you simply cant remember where you live? Think it only happens to children? The 80-odd members of “Aakashaparavagal”- a home for the mentally disturbed bear ample testimony to the fact that it can happen to adults too.

Picked up from the streets; hungry, hurt, uncared for, more often than not bearing marks of their ill-treatment at the hands of the so called “normal” people, these children of a lesser god are transformed into child-like beings at the hands of the volunteers at this center near Jalahalli.

A few snapshots of the home:

A bright red children’s cycle-interesting in its sheer incongruity in its surroundings. It belongs to a little boy; the only child amongst adults. Will he grow up with scars on his psyche from being in the middle of the inmates who are recovering from illnesses of the mind? Or, will he grow up full of love, compassion and understanding for people who are different from him?

The 100-watt smile of Shaju Chettan: The smile never wavers. His can’t be an easy life. What is it that makes him so strong and willing to serve mankind-taking care of the truly lost ones? Bringing people off the streets and trying, sometimes to no avail, to bring them back to some semblance of normalcy using every avenue available to him. Being able to live the doctrine “As God provides for the birds of the air, he will provide for this home and its inmates” (hence the name!!). Living with his family (a wife and the little boy-proud owner of the red bicycle) in the midst of the inmates who can turn dangerous at any point, it takes courage of a rare kind to continue to do what he does so well.

A neat dining hall: At one point, full of inmates who sat at tables patiently awaiting their lunch. Surprisingly calm and quiet. Except for squabbles that arose when one stole some chicken from another’s plate. And also a sudden cry from a lonely man crying out his anguish and wanting to be back with his family and familiar faces.

A dwarf-completely normal and belonging to the Gemini circus. Left behind at a hospital in K.R Puram due to his lung problems-all his money gone in its treatment. Uncaring relatives and having nowhere to go, he has found his way to this center too.

Leaving the center one image lingers. That of the inmates-all freshly bathed and spruced up to face the day-sitting in the warm sunlight on the fenced in terrace-happy with the simple things in life!!

Written By

Samitha