Wednesday 18 December 2013

Leprosy Colonies of Tamil Nadu, India

Chettypunniyam Colony                                                                                16 December 2013

Meeting Mumtaj
 
 



Christmas is less than ten days away, yet here I am in sunny Tamil Nadu, India sitting in a plastic lawn chair at the home of a woman affected by leprosy.  Mumtaj is sitting on the cement bench connected to the front of her home.  The expressions on her face are stern and her gaze pierces me somewhere inside.  As if this wasn't enough to intimidate me, her voice surely finished me off.  As she spoke with Bala, Rising Star Outreach's social fieldworker and my interpreter, her loud, sharp, bolstering voice made me shrink further in the blue lawn chair positioned directly in front of her.  I'm aware that I am clueless when it comes to reading tones of conversation in Tamil so I remain motionless, anticipating Bala's command to confirm my notions that this woman hates me and wants me to leave immediately.  And to boot, the upcoming Christmas season has acquired a grasp on my every thought and turned them all to my family.  I guess this is what being homesick feels like.

Amidst Mumtaj's interview, Bala, my newest friend among the RSO staff, caught me off guard when he inquired why I'm looking sad and unsettled.  In his perceptive words he asserted, "Kaylee, you are looking like you are not happy.  I'm sensing that you are missing someone you love."  I explained to him that this will be my first Christmas I will spend away from my family and they're on my mind.  "Ah," he says, "I am psychic, you see."  He expressed our conversation to Mumtaj in Tamil and this woman's quick response was translated to me.  "I am your mother here, you are always welcome in my home and you are like family here." Mumtaj says as she gestures to the entire leprosy colony.  What an incredible woman to express such selfless love to a spoiled rich American white girl whining about her poor Christmas.  Especially when (I should have realized far before the interview) 62 yr. old Mumtaj clearly has me trumped when it comes to reasons for whining. Dealing with leprosy since first diagnosis at the tender age of 5. Mumtaj has dealt with discrimination her entire life.  At age 16, her parents arranged her a marriage with another man leprosy affected(Customary of the cast system marriage pattern).  Mumtaj, a Hindu woman, converted to the Muslim religion for her husband, also a Muslim.  She and her husband moved into a government leprosy home and later moved into the Chettypunniyam leprosy colony before they were blessed with a daughter.  Mumtaj, widowed 8 years ago, lives alone in her smaller than tiny cement leprosy colony house with no running water and not even a toilet, in fact, the leprosy colony she lives in doesn't even have a communal toilet.  Open defecation stems the ongoing problems with dysentery and diarrhea in the colony.  Her hands and feet, disfigured and handicapped at the mercy of leprosy.  Her daughter, not affected with leprosy, lives with her husband and their 2 children in a city far away from the colony.  Alone for Christmas? That's nothing new for Mumtaj. 

Love the ones you love and like Mumtaj, love complete strangers.

Merry Christmas Mumtaj, with all the love my heart can possibly produce.  Your kindness this day has truly touched my soul.

No comments:

Post a Comment