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Manisha
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was late evening and I was listing the priorities for
the day ahead when the phone rang, It was Mehaboob, a
medical shop owner near Goni Nagar, a slum area in the
western suburbs. “Saab jaldi se aao, bahut urgent
hai” Mehaboob knew the work I was involved since
I used to take medicines from him for |
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the children in the slums. I rushed to the spot to find
Meena, a lady in her late twenties breathing heavily and
a small child, 2 ½ year old Manisha crying bitterly.
Mina, trying to commit suicide was rescued by the neighbors.
After a year of marriage, they moved to Mumbai following
their dreams, her husband had a good Job and happiness
knew no bound to Meena, who had come from a small town
in Assam. One fine morning, her husband bid her good-bye
to work and never came back. Her world suddenly collapsed,
she tried hard to get some news of her husband but to
no avail. Later she found out that her husband had another
lady in his life. Meena had no relatives in the city where
she could ask for help, she found a job as a housemaid
with the help of her neighbours but the money was little
to support the rented house, after two months of struggling
she gave in and tried to end her life. |
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an hour Meena was out of danger. I didn’t know how
to comfort her and never had dealt with such a case, I
called on Jagruthi, an active volunteer of Crayons to
comfort her. Deeply depressed and uncertain of the future
she laid still sitting in the corner of her room while
Jagruthi took care of her child. After two days of silence
she spoke out with tears in her eyes about her past, we
assured her our full support, slowly things became normal
with Meena . One evening I went with some chocolates to
meet the family and suggested that the child be put in
a nursery school, suddenly I saw Meena’s face glow,
being uneducated she wanted her child to get the best
education. Today Meena’s only aim is to see her
daughter stand on her own feet and face the world independently.
Manisha has completed her nursery and is a bright student
of Little Angel’s School. She visits the office
often and now has become a member of our family. |
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Khushi |
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One
evening Savita who is the Shelter caretaker was on her
usual visit to the market in Malwani buying fresh vegetables
to be cooked for dinner at the shelter. It suddenly began
raining and she had to rush back. One of the kids Jyoti
who was accompanying her told ‘Didi mujhe ek shortcut
pata hai’. They then started moving through bylanes
of hutment colonies of unit no 8 Malwani towards the shelter
which is situated behind the Malwani bus depot. After
moving for 5 mins their eyes came to a standstill. They
saw a 1 year child in torn clothes crying badly and lying
in muddy water which had accumulated near the hutment
colonies. Savita instantly inquired about the child to
the people out there and came to know that her father,
a severe alcoholic had forced the child’s mother
to end her life by brutally hitting her every day. The
kid after her mother’s death would just lie on the
roads itself with no one to take care of and even nothing
to eat. So Savita immediately decided to call Jagruti
one of the lady volunteers of CRAYONS. They together checked
up with the local police authorities and brought the kid
to the shelter. |
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Khushi
who didn't have a name till then was named KHUSHI by Jagruti.
She symbolized a street child in every way she was vulnerable,
starving, homeless, mentally and physically broken. The
other girls at the shelter were happy to the youngest
addition to their family. Today Khushi has a family with
whom she can fight, laugh, eat, sleep and most importantly
be cared about. Till today she has one habit........ every
morsel of rice in her plate would be eaten and nothing
wasted, maybe she remembers her days of hunger. |
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Our
next development in these institutions will be imparting
computer education as information technology plays a big
role in today’s times. We have started with the
construction of a computer room at Kaveri English school. |
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