A Visit to The Missionaries Of Charity
“Joy” is a feeling that has been taken for granted by us in this era. We feel joy in the smallest of things. We feel overjoyed when we buy a phone or a tablet, when we get good marks in exam or when we get good gifts. We engross ourselves so much in this feeling that we forget the purity of this feeling. We forget what true joy actually feels like. Does it fill our hearts with immense pleasure? Does it send chills down our spine? Or is it just a combination of both?
So when we, the students of MISB Bocconi set out to spend our valentine’s day with the children at Missionaries of Charity, we had no idea it would end up being such a life altering experience for us. On reaching the place, we gave the sisters the grocery items and chocolates that we had brought for the children. Then, we were led to the nursery where all the children were staying. There were about fifteen children aged 2-5 years in the nursery. We were then advised to handle the children with care since they were specially abled. Some were sleeping others were playing around in their cradle. While we were playing with the children, we felt that pang of joy within ourselves. They just wanted us to hold them up! The little elder ones were asking our names, some playing with our shiny purses and others just wanting us to carry them around. It is impossible for us to fathom our lives without parents and the very thought of them having to lead this life filled our hearts with so much pain. As I was saying “JOY” is not just feeling immense pleasure but this also sent chills down our spine. Another thing that gave us great delight was seeing some people visiting the missionary to adopt these kids. It was really satisfying to believe that at least some of these children will be leading great lives with their foster parents.
Since, we had visited the place late afternoon we could not get much time to spend with the children that left us wanting for more. It was really heartbreaking to say goodbye to them because we just wanted to continue playing with them. But all good things come to an end and this did too. But not before we promised ourselves that we all would be coming back at to spend some more time with them.
In addition to introducing us to the true joy of life, this experience also opened up our eyes to the different and innocent lives in our society. They being differently abled does not give us the right to treat them differently but it should motivate us to treat them specially and with greater care. Because children will be children and a life is a life.
This article has been written by Neeti Nayanika Patnaik, a member of our club.
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