Caring for Others
by Malcolm Muggeridge / Deccan Chronicle / Janki Iyer
Rapid Learn 2-Minute Revision
Perfect for last-minute revision
2-Minute Revision Video
Video coming soon
This lesson is about people who share their love with all of humanity. It has three parts. Part I is an extract from Malcolm Muggeridge's interview with Mother Teresa, who ran the Home for the Dying in Calcutta; she picked up the poor and the dying from the streets, made them feel wanted and loved, and, for those who recovered, found work or sent them home. Part II is a report about Janaki Iyer, a seventy-year-old woman who runs a non-formal school called Ananda Bharati at 'Needa' for girls who work as domestic servants; though non-formal, the school is very serious about education, with highly qualified teachers, innovative methods, and children who grow into confident individuals. Part III is the true story of Bhagya, a ten-year-old student of Ananda Bharati who looks after her baby sisters and works part-time as a domestic helper, yet who deliberately gives up an offer of a hundred rupees a month so that she can keep her afternoons free to study. Together the three parts show how love, care and self-help can transform lives.
Detailed Summary
Detailed Summary Video
Video coming soon
Part I, Mother Teresa and the Home for the Dying
Mother Teresa was born in South Yugoslavia and came to Darjeeling, India, at nineteen to teach. In 1931 she decided to serve the poorest of the poor and founded the Missionaries of Charity, who run schools, mobile dispensaries, training centres and homes for the destitute. She won the Nobel Prize in 1979 and the Bharat Ratna in 1980.
In the interview, she tells Malcolm Muggeridge that the first dying woman she saved was picked up from the street, half-eaten by rats and ants. The hospital took her in only because Mother Teresa refused to move until they did. She then got a place from the municipality, a dharamshala near the Kali Temple, and opened the first Home for the Dying in 1952. For the dying she does one thing above all: she makes them feel wanted, loved and cared for, so that they know they are children of God and are not forgotten. Those who recover are helped to find work, or sent home to spend a few happy years.
Part II, Janaki Iyer and Ananda Bharati
Near the Tarnaka crossroads stands a quiet house called Needa (refuge), with a small school attached to it where little girls who are domestic servants learn to read in the afternoons. Though it is a non-formal centre, education here is a very serious business: the girls write public exams, some join residential schools and some go on to higher studies. Innovative teaching, field trips and discussions on current events transform the children into confident individuals whose values stay with them.
The school is run by Janaki Iyer, called 'Ja' by her friends, a sprightly, unassuming, soft-spoken seventy-year-old with a well-ordered mind. She attracts many young professionals to help: a computer professional keeps the accounts, a Linguistics professor teaches Hindi, others teach English and music. She has also kept teachers from under-privileged backgrounds. When a child needs a residential school or college, Janaki's many friends help solve the problems. She is doing a yeoman service to these domestic workers by educating them.
Part III, Bhagya's deliberate choice
Bhagya, a ten-year-old, comes to Janaki's afternoon class with her younger sister Swarna and baby sister Swapna. The moment she hands over Swapna, she sheds her responsibilities and, like any child of her age, becomes absorbed in her Telugu, sums or drawing. With the little money she earns working for the occupants of a flat, she buys herself rubber slippers, green bangles and new clothes.
One day Bhagya passes on to her friend Lakshmi an offer to work in a new apartment for a hundred rupees a month, explaining, 'I cannot take on more work if I want to study in the afternoon.' Bhagya has made a deliberate choice, giving up a hundred rupees every month in order to study, and the matter-of-fact, regret-free way she says it is even more remarkable. To her the issue is crystal clear.