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Do they know it's Avurudu? :

Incurables waiting for an Indomitable Spirit

by Aditha Dissanayake

Do they know that in five more days the sun will move from the Meena Rashiya to the Mesha Rashiya and that a brand new year will begin? Do they know that soon it will be Avurudu or Puthandu, for the majority of the country?

Yes, they know. But have you ever dared to ask them? Have you ever dared to step into a place you'd have driven past, a million times on your way home to find out?

If you had dared to turn left and step into the Victoria Home for Incurables in Rajagiriya, you'd know how difficult it is to ask even a simple, every-day question like "How will you spend the new year?" from the inmates of the Home, who are handicapped by one or more of fatal malady that would eventually drag them down to death.

Just another day

Ask Ananda who sits in a wheelchair in the garden, gazing at the vehicles whizzing past him, what he will be doing on New Year's day and he will say "Nothing" (mokuth na, nikan innava). A few steps away, Anura Bandara, Indrani Kusumalatha, Kamala and Jayarathna, to name only a few, too give the same answer. April 14th, 2006 will be just another day in the year for them. "We do observe the New Year rituals" says Mr. D.K Thewarapperuma, Director of the Victoria Home. "We make kiribath and I give a coin to every inmate on New Year's day".

Let them know it’s avurudu

In the past, philanthropists had come forward to help the Home celebrate new year, but this year, so far, no one has offered to provide a meal or arrange new year games for the inmates. "In the past, we used to play games during the new year. We had races in our wheel-chairs and my favourite was hitting the pot of clay, blind folded." Recalls Indrani.

Her companion, Kamala, who is hard of hearing, picks up the words "New Year" and begins to count the days left till April 14th on her fingers. But when I ask her if she will be going home for the New Year she does not hear me, or pretends not to hear.

Manel Rajapakse, dressed in a yellow frock and lying on her bed staked with various paraphernalia on all sides, does, and answers in English. "What can I do? There is nothing I can do lying on my bed this way, during the new year". Perhaps not. But there are other things that she can do. "I stitch my own clothes and when someone dies I write appreciations for them and send them to the English newspapers" Manel says she likes to read newspapers and the Sunday Observer is one of her favourites.

What about the others? How do they spend their day, confined to the precincts of the Home? Those like Ananda and Rohitha sit in the garden staring at the vehicles whizzing past them. Others have portable radios. At night they watch TV. "Each ward has a TV. But at the moment four are broken. They are beyond repair". says Mr.Thewarapperuma.

TVs though, are far down the list of equipment urgently needed at the Home. Wheelchairs and beds come first. Specially beds for the mentally retarded. "The wooden beds which are currently used are washed at least three times a day and are subjected to decay. It would be ideal if they could have beds made from fibre. A locker for each inmate, mosquito nets, mattresses, pillows, and bed-linen too are urgently needed" says Mr. Thewrapperuma.

Sparkles of love

Buying these essentials with the funds provided by the government is beyond his wildest dreams. "Every year the government gives us 1.1 million, with which we have to cover everything but is enough to see through the expenses of only four months". says Mr.Thewarapperuma.

Among the 180 staff members a casual employee gets Rs. 125 a day while the average staff member earns a meagre Rs. 4,500 a month. It is obvious that the dedicated staff at the home have not allowed "filthy lucre" to rule their lives. Nandawathi, a Ward Attendant who looks after the mentally retarded says she has been working for 25 years at the Home. "We are poorly paid, but we are healthy because we look after these inmates as best as we can" she says, her eyes glistening with sparkles of love.

"Eighty-five percent of the meals are given by the generous public" says Mr. Thewarapperuma. Anybody is free to provide breakfast, lunch, tea and dinner. If the provisions are provided the staff is willing to prepare the meals.

Next time you feel grumpy about everything that's wrong in your life, remember Upali, bound to a wheelchair for the rest of his life and resigned to the life of a bachelor because he feels no girl will love him (apita kawuda adaraya karanne?).

Even though the nurse chides him for wanting to have the impossible, he says he will celebrate the new year only if he ever gets to walk again. Looking at the empty space where his legs should have been its hard to imagine if his new year will ever dawn. Harder to return his cheerful grin when he wishes you a "happy new year".

Yet, even when nothing can be done to relieve the pain, cure the incurable diseases, bring life back into lifeless limbs, there is still one remedy left. Love. Show them you care. Let them know its Avurudu for them too.

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