Ashish..... A disciple of Vivekananda

[Guest guest]

The following was sent to us by a devotee of Sri Ramakrishna.

 

FROM: http://www.telegraphindia.com/1040916/asp/calcutta/story_3762855.asp

 

D. Ashish

The demographic map of north Calcutta is such that highrises are flanked by

slums. Wails of the bereaved and accounts of people dying without treatment

regularly reached these residents. Ashish Dutta (better known now as D.

Ashish), then a strapping collegian, was among the few who sat up and took

note of the suffering. Thus, in 1980, was born the seed of Medical Bank, a

name to reckon with in social work.

 

“So many people throw away medicines. We thought it would be a good idea if

we could collect them and put them to use. Once the medicines reached us, we

went to the local doctors and enlisted their help,” Ashish recalls. As

patients queued up from Kumartuli, Sovabazar, Bagbazar and Ahiritola,

Medical Bank started its next project of collecting used spectacles.

 

A good five years went by and the Bank went from strength to strength. “By

1985, we were going out to check on patients in slums near and far with our

mobile vans.”

 

With health, came the thought for education. “We started a school with 12

streetchildren, called Jibon.” In quick succession followed schools for

child labourers and children of sex-workers. “We also opened a centre for

working women where maids and factory-hands would come to pick up the three

As, sewing lessons and family planning methods. We even got them to bring

their husbands once a month for counselling.” This worked wonders for the

families as many of them left their drinking ways and the path of crime. The

streetchildren now even celebrate occasions like bhaiphonta and

rakhibandhan, informs the diminutive man of action.

 

Another significant milestone that his organisation has achieved, feels

Ashish, is increasing awareness about blood donation. “When we started out,

so many people thought it led to weakness. In these 25 years, we have

created 10,000-15,000 donors.”

 

He also sends out a message to parents about to marry off their children. “A

father spends so much on a wedding. Why not do a simple blood test to check

thalassaemia?”

 

He is emphatic in his belief that if one is transparent and genuine in one’s

actions, there will no dearth of helping hands. “We have received gifts of

ambulance, ultrasonography and ECG machines, oxygen cylinders as well as

cash from people. Our volunteers number 10,000 across the state.”

 

Ashish’s operations has spread too far and wide for exhaustive mention. “I

wish there were more hours to a day,” he smiles. So busy has the 44-year-old

disciple of Swami Vivekananda been that he has not had even time to marry.

“That would hamper my work,” he states.