Truly, Deeply, Elderly.

The day was planned to be spent making Wax Diyas (lamps) at Ashraya Seva Trust, with fast approaching deepavali being the celebration of lights. A ring of volunteers, at an old age home, and we were about to witness something unnerving and special. As the volunteers began filing into the dormitory room of some twenty-five odd elderly ladies, the atmosphere was cold, with blank stares thrown around at the floor, ceiling, at each other’s faces. A clear divide that could be felt, we weren’t welcomed. We probably reminded them of their grandchildren, sons and daughters or anybody family for that matter. Sure enough, we had to make ourselves welcomed.

The planned ice breaker session didn’t make much headway in doing so. Though there were some murmurs and moving lips among the ladies now. When it seemed we weren’t well prepared to handle an awkward beginning, an impromptu idea was the new lease of life for the engagement. One of the ladies, upon not much insistence brought out her hymns digest and began leading the feeble chorus. The air around the room was now warming up, with volunteers squeezed into different corners of the room, which now was seeming a heterogeneous mix of people. The forms gathered, hymns fading out, the main course was getting ready to be served.

The only table in the room, was drawn to the center. The boxes of bare earthen lamps were unloaded, waiting to be painted with colours. Brushes of varying sizes and boxes of fevicryl paints were juxtaposed. All that was now needed was for the ladies to pick the lamps and forget the rest that had them all tangled up. One jovial lady volunteered to begin. Second one hesitantly followed. Some were still not happy having us around, who were seen as disturbing the quaint silence that hung in the air. While one lady wept for having been abandoned in a city strange and alien, few others were too sick to get out of bed and take a peek at what was happening around.

The raw materials steadily but surely was now getting around the room. Some of the ladies, in a huddle, were reaching out for more lamps to try a different pattern and colour combination. With every new stroke of brush, stories began flowing out. Colours were now seeming mere. Hands were working away at the lamps, but the emotions were talking. Some had to be handheld through their efforts to paint, while few others only had to be heard. As the wax melted slowly on the stove, the coldness between the ladies and the volunteers seemed to fade faster. Creativity was all but hidden, waiting to be brought out of the closet.

For most of the volunteers, it was their maiden visit to a place such as Ashraya Seva Trust. Interacting with destitute ladies, fading into their old age, wasn’t what they did as a part of their everyday lives. But the stories they were hearing left them moved. It compelled them to react, least with words, mostly with attentive listening. There were no special requests placed. No demands made. All they sought was company of their families. Though the activity we engaged them in seemed a reprieve, the longing in their eyes was apparent. The engagement was supposed to wind up before their lunch hour, but end seemed distant. The emotional connect mattered more, food only earthly. With families visiting some of the elderlies, their joys only doubled.

When it was time to say our goodbyes, their reluctance to have us leave morphed into evident disappointment. Volunteers, on their behalf, were left heavy hearted, reeling in the stories verbally played out at them, probably awakening to a realization that would make them treat elders with utmost respect and tender care. As last of us volunteers left, lunch was ready to be served. Their lives back on the same track that had us, only momentarily, share their journey to nowhere. The engagement left every heart filled with hope. Hope of having the elderly ladies’ emotional desiderata fulfilled. Hope of seeing the children again, who came visiting, forming new bonds and extending family boundaries.

#Volunteering #YouthforSeva #Oldagehome #Diwali #Bengaluru #Joyofgiving