Chennai’s angels

A voice in the dark

This 45-year-old Chennai homemaker’s biggest advantage is her knowledge of the Tamil language. There aren’t many volunteers in the city to read out Tamil texts to visually-challenged children studying in Tamil-medium schools; Revathy Ramakrishnan fills the void.

It all started three years ago, when she responded to a call for volunteers to read to students of a blind school. “I had to read slowly and be very patient, which was quite contrary to my nature,” reveals Ramakrishnan. While the five-day routine stopped eventually due to additional home responsibilities, she still reads to those pursuing a PhD. She has even recorded her reading of some texts for other blind students.

Now, Ramakrishnan is the go-to person for the visually-challenged working on Tamil literature. A CD of her reading out works from ancient Tamil literature is on the shelves of the Anna Centenary Library.

A hand for the aged

For seven years, Dr Akila Ravikumar, a family physician, has doggedly been setting aside time twice a week for free house-visits to lonely geriatric patients. In the course of her 30-year medical practice, Dr Ravikumar often received frantic phone calls to ‘confirm’ death of geriatric patients in their homes. She quickly realised the ‘pathetic plight’ of these elderly couples. “With no lifts in their buildings, they were completely incapacitated if they had fractures or fever,” recounts the 50-year-old. Many suffered from nutritional deficiencies as they depended on food from commercial caterers.

“A blind woman was caring for her 90-year-old bedridden, asthmatic husband. It was heart-rending —they would wait for my visits... she would know somehow I was the one coming through the door,” she says. In the case of a 90-year-old man with stomach cancer, Dr Ravikumar had to counsel the family. They asked her to force-feed the patient when he refused to eat. He told her that if she was a “good doctor, then leave me alone”. So Ravikumar counselled the family to do the same.

“This work is not just intensely satisfying, it is also humbling,” says Dr Ravikumar, adding these experiences made her realise the fragility of life and the dignity with which people can handle their lives in the face of adversity.

Her dream is to open a geriatric kitchen for the aged.

Clowning away pain

Dr Rohini Rau slips on a red nose and a clown costume once a week and heads to the children’s ward at Egmore children’s government hospital. The thought of doing volunteer work lingered on the sailing champion’s mind after being exposed to social entrepreneurs as a TEDx Fellow. When she got a chance to learn to become a ‘medical clown’ through workshops conducted by a New York trainer and at the Little Theatre Group, Dr Rau grabbed the chance.

Medical clowns sing, play music or do magic to distract ailing children from their pain.

“It gives back control to the patient,” explains Dr Rau. “We give them an imaginary remote control and ask them to give instructions to us to sing or take them on imaginary journeys. There is a lot of improvisation and you have to immerse yourself completely. Research has shown that the effects of this last with them for a long time after we have left. It is distraction therapy.”