When love ‘floods’ our hearts.
We continue to visit the people of Ambedkar Nagar in Malad East once a week. Walking through the area is often a challenge. The debris that scatters the place is filled with glass and dangerous objects. Besides, Ambedkar Nagar is on a hillock and this means that you have to trudge up a rocky slope. Sewage mixed with rain water constantly flows through the area making it treacherous and of course terribly unhygienic.
Our doors at St Jude Church, Malad East, are constantly open and we have built a bond of love with these people. We continue to care for their injuries (Thank you Bro Paolo and Mabel).
Besides regularly changing their bandages (yup one month later) we are providing for surgeries that need to be done due to bad medical procedures carried out in the municipal hospitals in the initial days of the tragedy. We have also helped several people buy spectacles as they lost them in the flood. A few people in need of cataract surgeries will also be treated in the next few days.
I am grateful to Dr Agarwal, an ophthalmologists who runs a charitable organization for providing timely assistance and care to the poor. Also Reena Furtado who introduced us to Dr Agarwal and who often silently bears certain expenses herself. To my friend Vinay Pinto who has been an angel of mercy over several years by providing medical treatment for the poor who come to our ashram and to Dr Allan Alappat who even though is often exhausted visits the ashram and treats all these people free of cost both at his dispensary and at the ashram.
Yesterday I met Radha; interestingly her own neighbours did not know her name. Just before the wall collapsed brining with it death and destruction, Radha went to sleep on a little cot. While water gushed through her house and people were swept away she continued to sleep through the commotion and mayhem only to wake the next morning at five am. Radha’s life was miraculously saved and more, she has been blessed with sound sleep that most would be envious of.
Fr. Warner D'Souza is a Catholic priest of the Archdiocese of Bombay. He has served in the parishes of St Michael's (Mahim), St Paul's (Dadar East), Our Lady of Mount Carmel, (Bandra), a ten year stint as priest-in-charge at St Jude Church (Malad East) and at present is the Parish Priest at St Stephen's Church (Cumballa Hill). He is also the Director of the Archdiocesan Heritage Museum and is the co-ordinator of the Committee for the Promotion and Preservation of the Artistic and Historic Patrimony of the Church.
