The gift of a lifetime: On Diwali, five people talk about a present that made a difference

It's not just about the lights at Diwali, it's about the camaraderie and about the giving. The Hindu calendar marks Diwali as New Year's day across the globe. New clothes are given to the children of the family, sweets are distributed among neighbours and exchanged among family members. However, gifts are not always tangible; they don't always come in the form of clothes and sweets. Some of the best gifts received during one's lifetime are intangible. So, on this festival of gift-giving and light, we spoke to individuals from different backgrounds about how a single gift changed their lives.

'My son still has a mother'

It was shortly after Rubina Patel had given birth to a beautiful baby boy that she started having trouble breathing. When it got so bad that she couldn't even lie down to sleep at night and had to doze intermittently in a sitting position, she visited specialists who told her that her she would need a heart transplant. The tests continued, as did the doctor's consultations, but despite registering for a heart transplant, the 33-year-old's hopes sank by the day. And when she thought nothing would change, three months later she received good news: the hospital had received a cadaver whose heart matched Patel's requirements.

"Before the surgery, the doctor informed me about the risks: that I would have just a five per cent chance for survival and that I needed to be very strong," she recalls. "By some miracle, the surgery went well. Within a few months, I could lead a normal life with only a few restrictions on over-exertion or travel by public transport."

After her recovery, Patel wanted to thank her donor's family, but couldn't due to hospital procedures that ban recipients from finding out the donor's identities. "If I could meet them today, I would tell them that thanks to their family member, I have got new life. And my son still has a mother," she asserts. "I continue to consult a doctor, but I am eternally grateful to Dr Nandikishore Kapadia, too. He not only diagnosed me and performed the surgery, but also made the whole process smooth. My husband is a gym trainer and financially, we are not really that well-off, so I never imagined that it would be possible to have the life I do now. Dr Kapadia is like a fairy godfather for me," she says.

New pathways

Blind from birth, Kishor Gohil was always adept at mimicry and stand-up comedy, and even recalls memorising Johnny Lever's comedy routines. As a young boy, his uncle gave him the idea to pursue a career in stand-up comedy and anchoring shows. The idea may have been the perfect fit for Gohil, but who would hire a blind man? Life, however, has certain ways of rewarding talent.

There was a small stage show for a Sarvajanik Ganesh Utsav, and he was asked to anchor it. "It was an event in Vasai. Vasant Hegde, who worked in a bank and was associated with an organisation that works with blind people, gave me the break. A band consisting of people with visual impairment was called in from Pune and he asked me to compère for the event," he recalls, adding that today, it may seem like peanuts, but at the age of 18, that opportunity and those `30 was the beginning of a journey. "I owe all the credit of what I am today to that one opportunity."

In 2000, Gohil founded National Organisation for Disabled Artistes (NODA) to create work and opportunities for musicians and singers living with disabilities, as a way of giving back. As General Secretary, he now organises shows for artistes and provides opportunities to up-and-coming ones. "I wanted to create a model that will facilitate proper treatment, remuneration and dignity to artistes with disabilities," he explains. "Today, there are roughly 70 artistes associated with NODA from across India."

[(Clockwise) Kiran Vinkar playing his flute at a concert; Vanesh Eda, whose life changed when he saved a life; Rubina Patel and her four-year-old son; Kishor Gohil anchors a musical event; Santosh Shankar Patil, who is now happily married, attributes his joy to the education he received]

A toy that became a professional tool

Gohil's fellow NODA artiste, Kiran Vinkar, who is also blind, has been playing the flute since he was five years old. Correctly assuming that the child would find the sound amusing, his mother handed him a toy that went on to become a source of his passion and career.

"It was just another toy for me, but I really loved how it sounded, so I kept practicing," recalls Vinkar, who has now been a part of Bollywood projects like Oh My God and Hindi Medium. The flute, which was of a straight bamboo practice variety is long lost, but the passion to play remains with the musician. He recalls how, in Class 10, he dug up his old music teacher's flute and began learning to play professionally. "My music teacher at school had left when I was still in Class 4, and the music room mostly lay abandoned. When I was in Class 10, I went and searched through the dusty cupboards and found his flute. That was the beginning of my journey as a professional."

Today, Vinkar is not just a part of NODA, but also performs at gigs individually and with his band Udaan Entertainment Group, which consists of musicians with visual impairments. And it all started with a single flute gifted to a young boy. "At the time, I had no idea of the value of the gift I had been given. Today, I can only be grateful for the happy coincidence that led my mother to hand me my career at just five, though I didn't know it at the time."

Past tense, future perfect

For some, the opportunity comes in the form of a leg up. For others, it is the gift of an instrument that becomes a vocation. For Santosh Shankar Patil, who, at 14, had been living under the Chembur bridge in Mumbai, scrounging for food among other street-dwellers, the opportunity came in the form of a helping hand extended by the Children of God Foundation (COGF). The Navi Mumbai-based NGO funds education programmes and helps to rehabilitate children living on the streets. "On some days, kind passersby would give us food, other days we went hungry."

"It was around this time that some didis from the COGF came to our area. It took a few conversations, but they said that they could help me have my own career or study if I wanted. I went with them and became one of the first students to be a part of their residential programme in 2006," says Patil.

A course in mechanics at Don Bosco School and a Class 10 certificate from the National Institute for Open Schooling (NIOS) later, the foundation also helped the technician find his job with Tata Sky, where he has been working for over a decade. "Today, I have a wife with whom I live in Thane, and a respectable job. At one time, I didn't have enough money for four square meals a day. Today, if I want, I can have four people over to dinner at my home. Without COGF and the education that I received, I might still be under that bridge in Chembur, and that's a fact that I have never forgotten," he smiles.

In giving, we receive

Sometimes, the very act of giving can turn into a gift in itself. Hyderabad-based media person Vanesh Eda, recalls the time, when as a student, he and his fellow classmates helped save a life. And while it was the gift of life for a little baby boy, it was one that created a new sensibility to help for Eda and his friends.

During his Masters course, Eda and his fellow batchmates from the English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU), Hyderabad, had formed a student-driven NGO, Vie. Even though they hadn't registered it at the time, the group would regularly go to Gandhi Hospital, situated near Secunderabad station. There, they would distribute food among the less fortunate patients, who would come to the government hospital from far off places, didn't have the wherewithal for the commute home and hence stayed in makeshift shelters around the hospital during their treatment. "On one such day, we came across a woman and her new-born baby in a shed where most patients used to gather," recalls Eda. "She had given birth to a boy on a train to Hyderabad from Bihar and was in a bad state. She had been on the way to her sister in Bihar, since she had a falling out with her husband but got on the wrong train."

Vie volunteers took the baby and mother to Amanvedica, an NGO for destitute women and children, near EFLU. But their adventures were far from over. The mother, who was experiencing extreme postpartum depression, was in no state to even feed her child and neither was the NGO equipped to deal with the situation. "We fed the infant baby formula, but he was just days old and contracted jaundice. We then took him to a hospital and gathered funds at the college cafeteria for his treatment. Finally, when he was better and the mother, too, was in a better state mentally, we were able to get in touch with a trust from Bihar, and help the baby and mother home," Eda says.

While the infant would have died without their help, Eda insists that it is the baby who changed their lives. These students, heretofore living in their rarefied world, had finally opened their eyes to the realities of the world, the sufferings of others and how a small act of kindness can leave one feeling fulfilled.

After all, little acts of kindness that may seem insignificant to the giver, may change the life of the one who receives it.