Featured Student - Ramaswamy

Ramaswamy is a member of Helping Hands and is a DCS 2000 student of Banjara. He does counselling at Banjara Academy, R.T.Nagar on Tuesdays and does voluntary work at Kidwai Hospital, NIMHANS, Baptist Hospital and M.S.Ramaiah Hospital.

Being a Design Engineer at Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, Ramaswamy was always keen on lending a helping hands for people in distress. His first experience was when his friend was admitted in a Hospital following a heart problem. Ramaswamy met his friend's son who was waiting outside the ICU of the hospital, and decided to ask about his fathers' health condition. The conversation continued upto late night and this brought solace to that person. After discharge from the Hospital that friend contacted Mr. Ramaswamy and thanked him for being supportive. This is when he realised the importance of voluntary work, he also understood the solace that can be brought to the care takers of patients when they are allowed to speak out their feelings.

After his retirement though Ramaswamy had received various offers of reemployment, but he refused them and was intending to contribute something to the society. One day he found an advertisement of the DCS course at Banjara Academy and decided to take up the course. He completed the course in the year 2000 and had also enrolled himself as a Helping Hand volunteer. He mentioned that listening to a talk by Dr. Ali Khwaja at Rotary club had also inspired him to take up the voluntary work.

When asked about any benefits that he received from doing the DCS course he mentioned the following

Listening: Ramaswamy mentioned that he had learnt how to listen after he did the DCS course. He said that by listening one can help people pour out their feelings which in turn will help them come out of their problems. He also added that after joining the course he had learnt to listen to his wife before commenting on anything, which his wife appreciated too.

Empathy: Ramaswamy said that Empathy was another important element at a volunteer should possess. This will help solving many issues between people. Empathy is not sympathy, it is not showing sympathy to people. Empathy is to look at an issue from the eyes of the suffer. Empathy is important when it comes to dealing with patients and their problems. Through empathy a volunteer can know what are the feelings of the patients and the care takers.

Sharing his experiences, Ramaswamy mentioned a few incidences which he felt were unforgettable. The first experience was about three people from Raichur. Ramaswamy once saw a feature in Kannada Prabha about three people from Raichur. Their photos were published and the article mentioned that they were suffering from a very peculiar disease and since the village was in a very remote area their was no medical facilities available. After reading this article Ramaswamy felt very upset and wanted to help these people in some way.

Ramaswamy decided to get them the help provided by the Government, but they did not have a BPL (Below Poverty Line) card. Only those people having this card were given concession for medical treatment by the government. So Ramaswamy had to first provide them with the BPL card and for this he had to continuously shuttle between Vidhana Soudha and Vikas Soudha. Finally he met the secretary of the Health Minister. Ramaswamy recalls the discussion with this person as he was a very king hearted man who immediately faxed the BPL application form to the DC of Raichur. Ramaswamy wanted to follow up with this and decided to visited this village himself and find out how he could help them. When he told his wife about this plan she was also ready to accompany him to the village. He met the DC of Raichur who was very glad that Mr. Ramaswamy had come from Bangalore to help the people in the village. He also sent his staff with Ramaswamy to the village.

Ramaswamy recalled the path to the Honnakatannahalli village, the road was so terrible, and even an ambulance could not travel on that road in case of any emergency. Mrs. Ramaswamy had purchased a few clothes and food grains for this family. The village was very small with only about 8-10 huts, and was completely disconnected from the main city. The villagers also had no knowledge about any such diseases and thought that this disease would spread and hence were staying away from these people. After meeting the patients Ramaswamy knew that the condition was caused due to some nerve disorder. This particular family had three members suffering from this disease and they informed Ramaswamy that some of their relatives died suffering from the same disease. One among them was Mrs. Mehabubi who was in a very bad condition and was not even able to walk properly. The staff from the DC's office filled the BPL form and got the thumb impressions on the forms and submitted them to the DC. The patients were then immediately shifted to Rajiv Gandhi Hospital where Ramaswamy spoke to the Director of the hospital who was very helpful. The Director immediately admitted the three people and also gave them the eligibility to avail the free medical benefits. Ramaswamy also spoke to the neurologist who explained to him about this disease, he also assured Ramaswamy that he would do his best to help these patients.

 Another incident that Ramaswamy shared was about one Ms. Lousia. Ms. Lousia was paralyzed and was completely bed ridden. She had to depend on her mother for everything. Ramaswamy met her in her residence at Tannery Road and discovered that she could get the benefits from government. But this required them to complete a few formalities and Ms. Lousia had to be taken to the related government office to complete them, but she was unable to travel due to her disability. Ramaswamy managed to arrange for transport, he also had to arrange for two people who had to carry her to the third floor to the building as there were no elevators. After completing these formalities the officials asked them to wait for a few days for the processing of the papers. After a few days he contacted the officials who informed him that they had lost Ms. Lousia's complete file which contained all the documents. Ramaswamy was completely shattered and was left with no option but to redo the entire procedure again. But now Lousia was disheartened and refused to even come outside the house even for a photo. With great difficulty Ramaswamy completed the formalities and now Lousia gets the pension for disabled every month.

Ramaswamy shared an experience during his voluntary work at NIMHANS. He said that one day when he was at the Hospital he noticed an emaciated young village woman struggling to climb the stairs. She carried a child on her waist and the other hand slowly draged another boy. Ramaswamy recalls how the boy's legs looked like bamboo sticks and his eyes were completely red. He helped them climb the stairs and the woman handed over a small chit to Ramaswamy, on which was written “NIMHANS”. Ramaswamy directed her to the concerned doctor who listened to the details provided by the woman. After the case history file was prepared it was decided that the mother and her two children would be admitted to child psychiatry for residential rehabilitation programme. When Ramaswamy asked for details the woman said that her name was Basamma and she was from a village called Chitapur. She also told him that her husband died of an unknown ailment and she had two sons who were mentally retarded. They were both deaf and dumb too. Basamma was willing to work in the fields in her village as a coolie, but she could not as both her children were to be taken care of continuously. As the children were mentally retarded that could not understand much. They did'nt know how to cry or laugh. They would even pass urine and motion standing, sleeping or sitting like animals. Basamma always carried a mug of water and a dry cloth with her to cleanup. The rehabilitation started from the next day and was structured programme like group mixing, physiotherapy, walking practices, and training and counselling for the mother. Ramaswamy had visited the family continuously and spent time with them. Basamma was very happy sharing her thoughts with Ramaswamy, she was also continuously thanking him for the help and support. The boys' condition had improved and one of them even started indicating for urine now. Speech therapy was consulted and eye problem was also seen. Finally Basamma and her children were discharged and had been asked to come back after three months. On the last day Basamma showed her gratitude to Ramaswamy by folding hands and touching his feet. Finally she carried one boy, held his hand and waved and same way the other boy. Ramaswamy was very happy on the improvisation with both the boys health conditions and also mentioned that this was a very touching memory.

Ramaswamy lastly added that he had experienced and learnt many values from working as a volunteer at hospitals and by counselling at Banjara Academy. He also mentioned that he always would like to be associated with Banjara Academy and its activity.