Are Guardian Angels real?

Chinnu*, the unknown

Chinnu is not as small as her name suggests. Slender, agile and a rebel all her life, that is her in a gist. Of course, she continues to be a rebel till today. At school, she would frustrate her teachers with her arguments. So much so that they would ask her to join the Law School instead of middle school. Swimming in the ever-swirling river (in her village) especially during monsoons made her tough. She learned from torn pre-used books, forgot hunger, lived with minimal needs and dreamed big.

Law School was never on her to-do list, instead she did the long-term course in the Central Institute of Mental Retardation in Thiruvananthapuram. Later she went on to serve the mentally and physically challenged for over three decades. She now works in a therapeutic Community in Bangalore, with a community approach to mental illness.

Known to be strict with herself and others, and yet deeply caring, Chinnu has become a constant presence in the therapeutic community. Perceptive, quick in judgments and very intuitive in diagnosis, she is a great ‘traffic-guide’ for the mentally disturbed. She directs the needy to the right therapists, counselors and mentors.  Ask any of those recipients of her care, they will retell, ‘Oh, but for Chinnu, I would have been miserable. Who knows, I may have even ended my life?’

Life in Andhra

Chinnu worked with the physically and mentally challenged in the remote villages of Andhra Pradesh for over a decade and a half. Some babies crawled on filth in their rural shacks. She took them in, provided for them, sheltered and educated them. Some of them have now become adults, employed, married and proud parents. They telephone her, their foster mother, to assure and let her know how grateful they were.

She vouches that it is the poor that humanized her. While working with the challenged in Andhra, she recalls, the village women who had big families, up to nine children. They would finish their work at home, rush to the center, do all the work for the challenged children, and feed them. Then they would return late to their own homes for another arduous evening of household chores in a male-dominated society. Their sacrifice and devotion teach us lessons of compassion and sacrifice, she insists. This would probably be one of the most inspiring human stories.

What you give always comes back to you…

Chinnu is now in her mid-fifties and is the proud builder of ‘Excel Residence’ which she wanted to be an earning enterprise along with a home for her family. She had the courage to build the ‘Excel Residence’, an edifice of three floors, with no capital.  Thanks to her astute planning, foresight and the ability to bring together the family resources, the 4000 square feet residency is now a reality. God’s gift of a genial and kind contractor was the crowning of it.  Unlike the many greedy contractors, we hear about often, here was a man who did the best with minimal resources and often spending from his pocket in advance. Generosity, after all, begets generosity.

Excel Residency or Containment Residency?

Soon after the first anniversary of the ‘Excel Residence’, came the thunderbolt, Covid-19. Panic set in after the ground floor tenant of the residence tested positive for Covid-19. The woman who is expecting a baby calls on Chinnu and requests, ‘Please don’t leave me alone’. Chinnu has her own sister who is vulnerable and sick and needs her constant attention. Add to that, she herself is a vulnerable person, a diabetic of two decades. Her only consolation is the nephew who works from home. The other two floors have young students who are caught in the containment zone, rules of which do not allow them to get out of the house. So Chinnu cooked, fed, ordered things for others and coordinated her residence. Until a few days ago a brand new posh residence, Excel Residence is now a Containment zone and a care center.

In one of the poignant moments during those affected days, the expectant mother called Chinnu and said, “I am so hungry, have not eaten anything during the day. The online delivery has not yet arrived. Can you give me some food?” Chinnu rushed with a pot of idlies and left them at her door. A message came in 15 minutes, “My little one in my stomach says thank you to you”.

The center continues to be a caring center for the Covid-19 affected and vulnerable. Chinnu is now the Guardian Angel of the residence in a containment zone with about eight people locked up, including a pregnant woman and her husband.

How did Chinnu end up becoming a Guardian Angel now? Corona virus made her. Guardian Angels, oh, they are real! I believe in them. I pray for their safety and the safety of the whole world.

Anne Frank words are apt to tell the coronavirus, “I don’t think of all the misery, but of the beauty that still remains.”

 (*Names changed/hidden to protect privacy)