Monday, March 31, 2008 Jnanashrama..

Monday, March 31, 2008Jnanashrama, Home for the Aged... Spoorthi relives good old days with gud old frenz!

Jnanashrama, Home for the Aged at Banerghatta Road is where we all were heading to on Mar 30th, 2008 as our activity after the last one for Xmas. As per the pilaan, we all reached Diary Circle. There Abhay with the new hippie look, Cool Kish, Dileepa and the McAffee boy had decided to lead the way to this place as we were not sure of the route.

Car wuz filled with the gifts that we had decided to give. Previous day, Suri, Rathi and Rathi's fren shopped for cotton sarees and dhotis. Must say it wuz gud wrk done with the selection of sarees! Take a bow ppl..hehheee..We also got sm snacks for them, all this wuz loaded into the car.By now Harshi, Ambika, Me n Pri decided to travel in bus. So there we all got started, rest of them along with Jo and her cute lil cuzin went ahead in the car.Reema "Khan" joined us at IIMB and we all reached Jnanshrama easily.

As we just landed there, we were greeted by the cook of tht place. He inturn called the head of this place and then when we got talkin to him realised this wuznt an NGO but the ppl here had to pay for their stay here. Initial deposit of 10000/- and 750/- per month. Hmmm...for a min we thot mebbe it wuz a wrong place bcuz spoorthi always went to places where service to the unfortunate wuznt cmin at a price.

We were taken to Padma amma's house first, here we were told tht each of the 32ppl living there is given individual houses to stay. Padma amma welcomed us cheerfully and this lady was a storehouse of happiness and talent. Mebbe they know the predictable questions being asked first, she started off sayin..shez here bcuz after her husband's death she dint wanna depend on nethin but wanted a silent "vaathavarana". She wuz from Mysore and narrated few incidents of the Mysore history.When we asked her to sing, she said she doesnt know any of the "halli" songs but shez frm Mysore city and Blore city.

She went onto sing beautifully and blessed all of us thru tht song.There we got to see the sign of independence tht existed in her and the others which we realised in hours to come. We thot instead of meeting each of 'em at their houses, it wud be better to meet all of 'em together so the coffee time at 4pm wuz just right.

There as we started serving snacks, pop came the question from an old dignified man asking us the purpose of the visit and we did manange to convey our intentions to the crowd there. During the tea time, we distributed the gifts to the 17 ladies and 15men there also the snacks. By now it wuz raining heavily, but tht wuznt a spot of bother at all for us.

We met lotta ppl, a professor, a retd HAL employee, this old man who said who has travelled 3/4 th of the world and since hez a bachelor hez in this place.And this enthu pataks ajji from Mangalore. Such a sweetheart she wuz, said "Athe Maava avarannu Kathe kathe antha nodbaardhu, avaranna amma appa tarah nodbeku" hope me spoke Kannada :D

She wuz a bundle of fun and excitement. Asked her age, she said 18 then asked us to reverse it ;) And yes there was one ajji who poured her heart out to Jo and Jo did a gr8 job of listening to her and comforted her.
All of us got talkin to most of 'em there and realised the conversation just went on and it wuz more on their personal achievements and not necessarily abt hw their sons, daughters or daughter in laws had ill treated them.
Be prepared for the unexpected, this place is filled with Independant ppl with choice and not without choice.Quite an experience for all of us and with God's blessings everything worked out best!

Kudos to Spoorthians :)