..... an ordinary monday

even as i write this email, a historic vote has taken place in the US. a historic vote that (finally) makes universal the access to healthcare in the US. it extends the right to medical services to those who are often the most vulnerable, and need it the most - for example, those who cannot afford to pay for health insurance, children denied healthcare insurance because of "pre-existing conditions", those who fall seriously ill only to discover that the gods that they depended on have suddenly betrayed them - their health insurance policies mysteriously cancelled. you get the picture - these are rights that we would call inalienably human - the right to expect support and medical treatment when you actually need it. it took more than a half century of dreaming and activism, one major public debacle and failure, and a bruising year of tackling a political opposition where no tactic was too low for this right to be fully human to become US law. and the battles have, in many ways, just begun.

this dream, of course, remains a dream to millions in our own country. we have a long long way to cover before we, as a nation, extend the same courtesy to our fellow citizens - the right to live (or even expect to live) a full and a healthy life. it's not a pretty world that we live in. i am reminded of dr devi shetty, pioneering founder of the narayana hridyalaya and a visionary heart surgeon who has given hope and life to so many among us - especially the poor. there is a wonderful documentary on him (if you have not seen it, do see it - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsPic6PRCf4) where a patient says, simply but with utter clarity, "you are my saviour. you are my god in flesh and blood." "i am just doing my duty as any other individual," responds dr shetty, "but unfortunately overall society has degraded to such a level that just being a normal human being is considered as godly."

quite an ordinary human being :-) of course it doesn't hurt that he does look, how shall i put it, quite godlike :-) shobhana still gets a dreamy look on her face when she sees his photos!

and yet, what the passage of the universal health care bill in the US and of the women's reservation bill in India (both have some distance to go, but to have come so far itself is such an achievement in the times we live in) show us is that change is indeed possible - what it takes is an open heart and an indomitable will- the ability to feel for others, and the courage to fight for and live what you believe in. a heart that will not admit defeat will not be defeated :-) i may be (as always!) simplifying things a lot - there is much politics, much compromise, much that is imperfect here - yet these are genuine and significant achievements.

closer to home shobhana's hot dates for me continue unabated :-) this week's date took us to the assisi snehalaya, just a mile across the highway from the point where destiny forks you to planet ettimadai. this amazing oasis right next to our heartbeat offers our hiv infected brothers and sisters, especially the children, a place to rest, to heal, and to grow human again. the magic, as always, is that of compassion and a love given freely. we spent perhaps two hours in all. and came back filled with the boisterous energy and the charm of the kids, and the quiet strength of the care-givers.

the interaction with the kids was a little sedate in the beginning. till preetika & co launched into a tamil film hit, and with that simple move melted the ice! boy did the kids dance, and how well. a-cappella singing, the beats being coaxed out of a plastic chair and and an exhilarating demonstration of the latest dance moves (vijay reigns in this land!). it was the same experience last month when we went to the special day that sandeep and his friends from sattva had organized for 'specially-abled' children. if you so choose, just looking at the deal life has offered these kids can break your heart. or if you open your heart and really look, life throbs even more raw, even more passionately in these hearts. their joy, when nurtured and given the avenue for expression, dances naked for you. without any artifice, pretence, or mask. just life teaching you so much about itself.

what it takes to reach so far is an extraordinary amount of love and faith in those who around them. as dr devi shetty pointed out, there are heroes all around us - ordinaryhuman beings teaching us the limitless potential of what it is to be just an ordinary human being.

this monday's poem is one of my favorites ever. a hangover from my schooling in a jesuit institution, st xaviers in delhi. i've forgotten all the "moral science" lessons i was ever taught (:-) but this poem was branded onto my heart - the prayer of st francis of assisi

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace;

where there is hatred, let me sow love;

where there is injury, pardon:

where there is doubt, faith ;

where there is despair, hope

where there is darkness, light

where there is sadness, joy

O divine Master,

grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;

to be understood, as to understand;

to be loved, as to love;

for it is in giving that we receive,

it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.

(saint francis of assisi)

it's, they say, a day of historic importance. perhaps every day is such a day :-) heres to a week where we are truly, and fully, human :-)

much love,

d&s