Contribute for Good Samaritan Dorris Francis's cancer treatment

Copyright@shravancharitymission

By Kamlesh Tripathi

Press releases in TOI are given below

Bank account details are given after the press release

NH-24 good Samaritan in hospital, kin don’t have money for treatment—TOI dated 29.11.16

Abhijay.Jha@timesgroup.com

    Ghaziabad: She is the reason why you reached office on time every day, got to your daughter or son’s school without getting held up in traffic and kept an appointment.

    Dorris Francis was there every morning, rain, shine or smog, managing a chaotic intersection on NH-24 all by herself. Since Diwali, though, that ‘post’ has fallen vacant as a crippling stomach pain landed the 59-year-old in hospital. She was subsequently diagnosed with cancer.

    “She is admitted at AIIMS and her condition is not good. she has stomach cancer.” Her husband Victor, said om Monday.

    Thiers is a family of modest means, and Victor is worried about the cost of treatment. They have a small house in Ghaziabad’s khora  Colony, not far from intersection where Dorris and Victor lost their 17-year-old daughter, Niki, to an accident in 2008.

Help pours in for Dorris in sickbed—TOI dated 30.11.16

Abhijay.Jha@timesgroup.com

    Ghaziabad: Help is pouring in for the ‘traffic heroine’ of Ghaziabad, Dorris Francis, who is now undergoing treatment at AIIMS Delhi after being diagnosed with stomach cancer.

    After a report of her illness was published in TOI on Tuesday, people from across the country are reportedly contributing for Dorris’s treatment according to her husband, Victor. Dorris has been managing traffic on a particular spot at a busy intersection after her daughter, Nikki died in an accident there in 2010.

    Victor told TOI that since morning he has been flooded with calls from people from different places asking after her and wishing her a speedy recovery. A sum total of about Rs 70,000 has already been deposited in Victor’s account. Besides, Max Super Speciality Hospital, Vaishali, had offered free treatment for Dorris.

    “I am overwhelmed by the support,” Victor said.

    “In the morning I got a call from an elderly lady from Gurgaon, who asked me to collect a cheque from her house as she could not come down on her own because of her age.: Victor said.

    Dr Gaurav Agarwal, unit head at Max Super Speciality Hospital, Vaishali, has offered free treatment to Dorris. “We got in touch with her family members and have asked Dorris’s husband to share with us her medical report which we will discuss with our oncologists,” Agarwal said.

    An NGO Shravan Charity Mission engaged in helping poor cancer patients has also offered help to Dorris.

Account details are given below:

Name of account: Shravan Charity Mission

Bank of India account no: (680510110004635)

IFSC code: BKID0006805

Or mail your cheque to:

Shravan Charity Mission

S-002, Arihant Ambience

Crossings Republik

                                              Ghaziabad-201009

Mob 9971494795

*****

Copyright@shravancharitymission

By Kamlesh Tripathi

BEAUTIFUL LINES & INTERESTING THOUGHTS

§  Mind without heart, intelligence without conduct, cleverness without goodness are tools, but only for mischief.

§  Behave the way you can always behave—Annonymous.

§  Time is neutral and does not change things. With courage and initiative, leaders change things- Jesse Jackson.

§  “Even God will not dare to appear in front of a hungry man unless in the form of bread.”- MK Gandhi.

§  Channel the Bob Marley inside you, get up, stand up, don’t give up the fight.

§  People shouldn’t be afraid of their government. Governments should be afraid of their people—Alan Moore.

§  Who is rich? He that is content. Who is that? Nobody—Benjamin Franklin.

§  I would not wish any companion in the world but you—Shakespeare.

§  The Rig Veda tells us: “Let noble thoughts come to us from everywhere.”

§  “Nobody can tell what I suffer! But it is always so. Those who do not complain are never pitied.” 
― Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice.

§  “The wound is the place where the Light enters you.” 
― Jalaluddin Rumi.

§  “One thing you can't hide - is when you're crippled inside.” 
― John Lennon.

§  Justice as Lord Atkin said is “no cloistered virtue.”

§   Sometimes words that fail to make their effect at the time are remembered later—Agatha Christie.

§  Give your clients the earliest delivery consistent with quality—whatever the inconvenience to us—Arthur Nielson.

§   Opportunities present themselves every day. You just have to be alert and ready to act.—Mark Ostrofsky, US Entrepreneur.

§  Sometimes it’s worse to win a fight than to lose—Billie Holiday.

§  The best of us must sometimes eat our words—JK Rowling.

§  The only thing that will redeem mankind is cooperation—Bertran Russell.

§  What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and value of nothing—Oscar Wilde.

§  Slow down and steady up—annonymous.

§  All work and no play/makes Jack a dull boy. To which the cautionary response goes ‘All play and no work/ Makes Jack a mere toy.’ TOI Editorial.

§  Don’t talk about yourself; it will be done when you leave—Wilson Mazner, US playwright.

§  Never hate your enemies. It affects your judgement- Mario Puzo- Godfather.

§  We’ve seen over time that countries that have the best economic growth are those that have good governance- Ramez Naam US writer.

§  A conversation is a dialogue, not a monologue, That’s why there are so few good conversations- Truman.

§  History does not repeat itself exactly but, as Mark Twain put it, it often rhymes.

§  If you have built castles in the air ... now put the foundations under them—Henry David Thoureau.

§  Margaret Thatcher’s warning that those standing in the middle of the road get run over.

§  The way to crush the bourgeoisie is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation—Vladmir Lenin.

§  Carlyle- the history of the world is but biography of great men.’ Some so called great men have their hands deep in blood.

§  Boris Pasternak author of Dr Zhivago called silence the best sound on earth.’

§  The greatest obstacle to excellence is you! A caddy once told a champion golfer, “There’s a perfect shot waiting out there. All you have to do is to get yourself out of the way.”

§  In short, I will part with anything for you but you- Mary Wortley Montagu, Writer.

§  By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail- Benjamin Franklin.

§  What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist- Salman Rushdie.

§  There are good times and there are bad times, but one must never forget the hard times—Annonymous.

§  When a father gives to his son, both laugh; when a son gives to his father, both cry—William Shakespeare.

§  Kritam Lokham Purushoabhijayte- Man himself builds his own world.

§  The boxer Muhammad Ali refused to wear his seat-belt on a plane. “Superman doesn’t need a belt,” he insisted. Tying his belt for him, the stewardess replied, “Superman doesn’t need a plane either.”

§  Exhibitionists: at a wedding they want to be the bride. At a funeral the corpse. Julius Caesar who was an incorrigible egotist, was kidnapped when he was a child. He was held for a ransom of 11,000 gold pieces. Horrified exhorted his captors to raise the sum to 250,000 gold pieces so as to preserve his prestige.

§  You only find out who is swimming naked when the tide goes out—Warren Buffet.

§  The whole of western science has developed from Greek philosophy. It stands on the foundations of Greek Philosophy, and one of Greek philosophy’s basic beliefs is that time travels in a straight line.

§  The bread that falls off your plate nearly always lands on the buttered side.

§  Evil manners live in brass, but our virtues we write in water.

§  There is a Mexican saying that we die three deaths: the first time we die is when our bodies die. The second is when our bodies are lowered into the earth, out of sight. The third time we die is when our loved ones forget us.

§  Being different and thinking different makes a person unforgettable. History does not remember the forgettable- Suzy Kassem, US writer.

*****

NGO ACTIVITY- MEETING THREE CANCER PATIENTS ON 16th NOVEMBER

Copyright@shravancharitymission

By Kamlesh Tripathi

    “Nobody can tell what I suffer! But it is always so. Those who do not complain are never pitied.”—Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice.

    It is indeed difficult to even imagine how much these young kids suffer. Yet they put up a brave face. They don’t complain of pain, and require no one’s pity.

Recently, we visited these brave kids in a hospital. They are diagnosed of cancer. All are a bundle of joy. But are oblivious of what they suffer from. They smile more than us. And, that is where they put us to shame, when it comes to raw guts. We handed over our contribution in the form of cheques, to all the three Parents, of these bravehearts.

My eyes went moist. When, I saw young baby boy Rihan. Who is five and suffers from NHL (Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma). He has been fighting cancer for the last six months. His father who works as a compounder has already spent more than two lac on his treatment. His income as told to us is around ten to twelve thousand per month. We wish Rihan all the best. And compliment his Parents for taking up this brave fight against cancer.

Garv Chaudhury, baby boy, age two years, was the second child, whom we met from Bulandshahr. He appeared every bit a joy. He was fast asleep when his mother tickled him to meet us. Surprisingly, he didn’t wake up crying. On the contrary he got up staring at us. He suffers from Pre-B ALL (High Risk). We wish him all the very best by praying to God Almighty. We would also like to compliment his father who is a marginal farmer and his mother who is a housewife in taking up this arduous fight against cancer. We wish them the best.

Next, we met Ayesha, a bright girl in her teens from Jaipur. Her father is self-employed and runs a workshop. His monthly income is around ten thousand. Ayesha is fighting cancer for the last one year and is diagnosed of Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. We wish her all the best in her fight against cancer. We also wish her Parents the very best in taking up the brave fight.

We all are so busy with our daily lives that we rarely think of such unfortunate and poor children who suffer from cancer. Should you want to contribute for the cause the account details are as given below.

Name of Account: Shravan Charity Mission

Bank of India account no: (680510110004635)

IFSC code: BKID0006805

*****

THE COPHETUA SYNDROME

Copyright@shravancharitymission

Kamlesh Tripathi

THE COPHETUA SYNDROME

    Cophetua was an African King. He was known for his lack of any sexual attraction to women. One day while looking out of the palace window he witnesses a young beggar Penelophon suffering for lack of clothes. Struck by love at first sight, Cophetua decides that he will either have the beggar as his wife or commit suicide.

    Walking out into the street he scatters coins for the beggars to gather and when Penelophon comes forward, he tells her that she is to be his wife. She agrees and becomes queen, and soon loses all trace of her former poverty and low class. The couple lives a quiet life but are much loved by their people. Eventually, they die and are buried in the same tomb.

    Much has been written about ‘King Cophetua and the beggar maid’ in English literature by various authors and poets. To quote a few:

    In D.H. Lawrence’s novel Sons and Lover, Paul sees Miriam’s well-worn clothes as “like the romantic rags of King Cophetua’s beggar-maid.”

    Agatha Christie uses the phrase “Cophetua syndrome” in her novel The Body in the Library, to refer to the case of an elderly upper-class Englishman who becomes infatuated with a working-class girl, albeit in a fatherly rather than sexual way. Christie also reference Cophetua in her novel Crooked House.

    That brings me to point that a human heart is very simple and unpredictable. It can fall for anyone.

*****

HELP DOESN'T HAVE A COLOUR OR A RELIGION

Copyright@shravancharitymission

By Kamlesh Tripathi

‘HELP’ DOESN’T HAVE A COLOUR OR A RELIGION

    Just as terrorism—Help, too, doesn’t have a religion. It can come from any corner. But unlike terrorism, that kills. Timely help sustains life. I had once gone to a hospital in Delhi. To meet parents of some poor young children who were suffering from cancer. The drill was to provide them with direct financial support, for treatment.

    In all we had met about ten children and their parents in the hospital. Our NGO decided to support three out of them based on certain illness criticalities, doctor’s recommendation and the budget available with us. And out of the three. One child was from Sopore in J&K. His name was Abdul, and his father’s name was Fareed. Who, happened to be a small-time shopkeeper with a paltry livelihood. Abdul was suffering from cancer for the last one year. And, during that period Fareed had exhausted all his savings. He had also received timely aid from the government, but that too had been spent. Slowly the resources were receding, while the treatment was still in full flow.   

    When I met this bright child Abdul, I found him in an animated mood, as he was talking to his mother in Sopore over phone. He had come to Delhi for treatment without her. I spent some time understanding the challenges of Fareed, and decided to give him the good news of our supporting his son’s treatment up to a certain level. But he didn’t sound enthused about it.

    First, I thought he hasn’t understood me. So, I repeated what I had told him earlier. And this time I spoke in Hindi. But still his reaction was not at all cheerful. I specifically enquired if he had understood what I had said. To which he gave me this shocking reply, ‘Janab, I have understood what you said. You want to pay for my son’s treatment. But yours is a Hindu NGO. So, how can I accept money from your Trust, for my son’s treatment? It might not cure him and Allah won’t spare me.’

    For a moment I was shocked. I didn’t know how to react. Does religion lay down crude boundaries at such junctures? I thought to myself. But without being deterred, I opened my bag and wrote a cheque, and handed it over to him.

    He held the cheque and looked at it morosely. I patted his back a couple of times, when his eyes went moist. Perhaps, he was at a break point. Where, on one end was the health of his son and the mounting expenses because of that, and on the other, were his own self created radical diktats. Which, he was trying to blame it upon his religion.

    I said, ‘Fareed Bhai this cheque is neither Hindu nor Muslim. It’s only a piece of paper from Upparwala, for your son. So utilize it.’ And then I moved out.

    After the episode a couple of months had passed. But that cheque never came to our account for debit. And, it was only when the cheque was about to expire. I received a text message from the bank debiting it to our account.

    And upon reading the text message I felt nice. Not because Hindu money had helped a Muslim. But, because Abdul had realized that help has no religion or face. It is infinite and can come from any corner of the world. And it is absolutely divine to take help. But the source has to be right.

   The story is true but the names are fictitious.

*****

Musical Play: Mughal-e-Azam

Copyright@shravancharitymission

By Kamlesh Tripathi

Musical Play: Mughal-E-Azam

Directed by

FEROZ ABBAS KHAN

A NCPA AND SHAPOORJI PALLONJI PRESENTATION

    Mughal-e-Azam (starring Prithviraj Kapoor, Madhubala, Dilip Kumar, Durga Khote, Nigar Sultana, Ajit & Murad) is an epic historical film, directed by K.Asif and produced under the banner of Sterling Investment Corp Pvt Ltd (Shapoorji Pallonji). Prince Salim’s love for Anarkali (a courtesan) leads him to rebel against his father Emperor Akbar. The plot involves a powerful drama around this confrontation, interspersed with beautiful dance numbers. The soundtrack, inspired by Indian classical music, comprises 12 songs and is considered among the finest soundtracks in the history of Indian cinema. Nine years in the making and costing ten times more than films made at the time, Mughal-e-Azam remains an all time top grosser of the Indian box-office.

    Such has been the power of the film that when it was re-released in colour in 2004 with six-track digital sound, it again ran for 25 weeks in theatres. Now, in 2016, for the first time ever in India, a classic film is presented on stage as a Musical Play.

-: GRATITUDE:-

Mr. SHAPOOR P. MISTRY

AND

MR. KHUSHROO N. SUNTOOK

…….

LIGHTING & DESIGN: DAVID LANDER

COSTUME DESIGN: MANISH MALHOTRA

CHOREOGRAPHY: MAYURI UPADHAYA

SCENIC DESIGN: NEIL PATEL

BACKGROUND SCORE: PIYUSH KANOJIA

PROJECTION DESIGN: RICHARD NOWELL

CASTING: MUKESH CHHABRA

CAST

AKBAR: NISSAR KHAN

ANARKALI: PRIYANKA BARVE/NEHA SARGAM

SALEEM: SUNIL KUMAR PALWAL/DHANVEER SINGH

NARRATOR/SANGTARSH: RAJESH JAIS

BAHAR: ASHIMA MAHAJAN

JODHA: SONAL JHA/BHARGAVI CHIRMULEY

MAAN SINGH: TAM BAHADUR RENU

SURAIYA: PALVI JASWAL

DURJAN: AMIT PATHAK/CHIRAG GARG

ANARKALI’S MOTHER: SHWETA PADDA

YOUNG SALEEM: BHAVESH BABANI

KALARIPAYATTU ARTIST: ARPIT SINGH AND VIPIN KAZHIPURATH

P.S. ALL SONGS IN THIS PLAY ARE SUNG LIVE AND ARE NOT PRE-RECORDED

*****

POEM: FASCINATING GOA

Copyright@shravancharitymission


By Kamlesh Tripathi

FASCINATING GOA

In the lap of beaches,

And the cradle of ravines,

In the vicinity of high seas,

Lies she—to my glee.

*

Splashing all the way on one side,

 Is the Arabian Sea,

And rising high on the other side,

Is the Western Ghats.

*

And stretching all across,

Is the wave of Konkan,

Well bounded by Karnataka and Maharashtra,

That is to my ecstasy.

*

From rivers galore to heritage hallowed,

It has water and lush, everywhere,

From Mandovi to Francis Xavier,

From Aguada to mid sea dolphins,

And from cruise to casinos,

It has it all.

*

It reminds you of Parashurama,

Who fought back the advancing seas,

To save the lands of Konkan,

From the turbulent seas.

*

From temples of Devi,

To shivalaiyas of Shiva,

From ferry cruise to waterfalls

Goa remains a paradise for all.

*

Epitome of Utopia,

A destination to recoup,

Where every bit is a wonderland,

With its lush green countryside to woo.

*

Where Portuguese came,

Only to remain,

Till India conquered

Her firm reigns.

*

Friendly people,

Noble souls,

Where one doesn’t fear,

Nocturnal strolls.

*

Water sports and sightseeing,

Dance and band,

Pub and hug,

In the least of smug.

*

Soft friends and cordial people,

Civilized drivers who never honk,

Systematic crossings, without traffic lights,

That feels like heaven,

Unlike the broad day light haven.

*

I loved being there,

A trip that I’ll remember,

A trip that I’ll cherish,

And the place that I’ll visit again,

Will be none else than Goa again.

*****