One of the dialogues, in the movie, “The Dark Knight”, is, “The Night is only as dark as long as the Morning’s first light has not breached it.” But until such light breaches the darkness, such darkness would seem to be… forever..
Its like the light at the end of a tunnel. One can see it… distant, small, like a dot, but they would have to travel through the tunnel, through the darkness, through the unknown, in order to reach the light, which would fill one with hope as they were travelling, for it would only keep growing and growing. But one must have the strength, or the will, or the motivation, to keep pushing themselves towards the light.
Perhaps that’s what Mrs. Sridevi, a mother of two, was going through, in her daily life… searching for that ray of light, in a dark cave of her life, or for that light at the end of the tunnel, when Mr. Srikanth, one of our volunteers, came across.
Mr. Bonela Srikanth, is one of our volunteers, and he was the one who came across Mrs. Sridevi and her present plight. To say that he was moved would be an understatement…
Their family is an example of abject poverty. Her husband is a footpath vendor and they have two children. To make matters even worse, both of her kidneys are not working and she has to go for a mandatory regular dialysis, which, luckily, is covered under the “Aarogya Sri” Pathakam, under the RIMS Hospital, in Srikakulam. She has to consult a Nephrologist in Visakhapatnam though, once in every month use the prescribed medicines. The travelling, the consultation and the medicine expenses are more than what she can bear and for the last 2 – 3 months, she has not been consulting the specialist…
We cant ask the specialists to give this for free. It would be affecting their livelihood. But… to the see the plight of a person like her and go by unnoticied, no person with a heart and with honour in them, would go by unnoticed. That’s where Mr. Srikanth came in.
He just couldn’t see her plight anymore. He knew something had to be done. And he knew exactly what had to be done. He is one of Us, one of LAASA’s esteemed Volunteers, after all.
He immediately launched a petition to bear all her expenses, for consulting the specialist in Visakhapatnam; the travelling costs, the consultation fees and the medicines, would all be borne by LAASA. It came to around 2000/- which we immediately gave to her and decided to monitor her health and her expenses for the coming few months, so that we could report if there is any change in her health and if we need to act accordingly.
Its the smallest acts like this, which show us all, LAASA’s true potential. In the aim to ocupy higher storeys, the lower floors are often neglected. Activities like these, the will of our Volunteers, like Mr. Srikanth’s are a testimony, that how much ever high we rise, how much heights we conquer, we would always help any person in need, high or low, far or near, enemy or friend.
All we do, is Help All, Love All, pass on the message and keep Serving All. For in that lies the true Progress of our Society. We should all Progress ahead, with the same spirit, with the same Love.
This, is what LAASA is all about. For we Love All and Serve all. This, is our Message.