What is life really worth?

Yesterday I got an opportunity to visit SEAL ashram. SEAL is an NGO dedicated to the mission of rescuing destitute and helpless people from the streets and railway stations of Mumbai. As it was Labor Day, some of the youth from our church decided to labor at the ashram and take this opportunity to share our love with the people there. The overall experience was quite overwhelming, heartbreaking, disturbing and liberating at the same time. If anyone of you think your life is worthless and not worth living, I suggest you make a trip to SEAL. You will learn to value your life more than ever.

We left town at about 6am and reached the SEAL ashram, situated in Vangani Village (a little ahead of Panvel) by 8am. We collected about 25 bags of used but clean clothes and toys and 50 Kgs of wheat flour, 30 Kgs of rice, 30 Litres of Oil, 30 Kgs of Onions 30 Kgs of Onions among other necessary items. We started our day by cleaning up the inmate's room and bathing them. It took us about 2 hours to complete the assigned task. we were done by 10am and settled down to have breakfast. After the breakfast we met with the kids. We played a few games with them and watched them entertain us with their dancing. Later we gave them all gifts and presents.. We bought them stuff that they can use when their school reopens. It was nice to see them all smile and happy & excited to get their presents all wrapped up in glittering papers.

Though I had a great time with all the kids, there was this one particular kid I got very attached to. While I was with all the other kids, there was this one kid who silently held onto my hand. He was unusually quiet for most part of the time. But when he got his present, he came to me and asked me what is this? I told him to unwrap the present to see what it is. But he still requested me to open it up for him. I saw how he had one of his eyeballs popping out of the socket. I asked one of the other guys if this guy could see properly. And the boy said, "Uncle usko Dikhta nahi hain, woh sirf mehsus kartha hain" (He can't see things, he can only feel them). So I unwrapped the present for him and my heart sank when he asked me what it was. It was a drawing pad with colorful alphabets on the reverse side of the pad. I didn't have the heart to tell him what it was. But I had to tell him. I told him its a drawing pad. And he could use it draw whatever was in his heart. Whatever he felt, he could give it life on this pad. The boy smiled at me but I knew how he really felt. So I called my brother and asked him if we had a replacement. It was good we had a little pouch, like a compass box. I gave it to him and told him how he could store whatever he wanted in it. He was quite happy and gave a nice genuine smile this time. The kid just continued standing there, holding onto my hand.

At the moment, I began to wonder how awful would it be to be blind, to live a life in total darkness. I tried to shut one of my eyes to see how would the world look to me if I was blind by one eye. It was very awful and discomforting. I don't know how a 10 year old boy could manage it. But it just made me value my life a lot more. Here are some of the pictures from our trip. These are just some of the better pics, didn't want to put the disturbing ones.