There’s been too much happening around us, recently. Being in the media generally keeps one busy, and thankfully so. From the war in the Middle East, to the Russia-Ukraine war and the Houthis in the Red Sea...The cascading effect of global unrest on our minds and pockets is taking a toll on our sanity and everyday living.
But, amid this chaos, there’s always a centre that stays unmoved like a calm that doesn’t forebode an impending storm. Instead, it tells you to be like grass. Gentle, velvety to sore feet, and with the humility to withstand the fiercest hurricanes.
N Ramaswamy is like the grass. A former aeronautical engineer with the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), the octogenarian metallurgical engineer has donated his life to the most disempowered people – those who are poor and really sick. After his retirement, he responded to a call of volunteering by ‘Helping Hands’ – a free counselling centre in Bengaluru in the late ’90s. And he hasn’t looked back since.
Ramaswamy is a regular feature in most of the hospitals; from government to private and corporate, where he reaches out to people, helping them liaise with the concerned doctors, filling up forms for the unlettered, simple people from the villages or those from outside the state.
His job doesn’t end there. Ramaswamy makes sure that the doctors see the patients. He lends them moral and emotional support if the prognosis of their disease is bleak. He has a small network of philanthropist friends, with whose help he buys medicines for economically weak patients. The level of his moral propriety is so high that he sends the bills to the donors to let them know how the money donated to them was spent. Ramaswamy and his wife have toured the districts on hearing the news that people had serious and at places, congenital health issues. In the absence of adequate healthcare, gullible people were seeking help from faith healers. Ramaswamy spoke to them, raised awareness of their medical condition, and helped them get medical help.
In a village in Raichur district, people suffering from Huntington’s disease – a rare neurological disease – were ostracised from the village because villagers feared that they were suffering from a contagious condition. He approached the director of a government hospital and ensured that the patients received appropriate medical aid. His visit to the patients did not go unnoticed. The government officials rushed to the homes of those families and issued them the BPL card besides assuring Ramaswamy that they would be treated and repatriated to their village.
Ramaswamy runs from pillar to post tirelessly to help the ailing poor people, who flock to the government hospitals in the hope of getting better. A majority of them neither know how to fill out forms nor enquire for the right doctor. It’s volunteers like Ramaswamy who come to their aid. Ramaswamy doesn’t alone help in liaising them with the doctors; he also networks with others, who can help provide the poor unemployed, and sick people earn their livelihood through humble and honest means. A tailor from Chikkamagaluru, who had almost lost his leg in an accident, was not only timely operated, but Ramaswamy also helped him with a sewing machine that was donated by another volunteer in his network. Today, the tailor is earning a decent livelihood.
Ramaswamy is a regular presence in Kidwai Memorial Hospital, Nimhans, and other government hospitals, where he reaches out to the poorest of the poor and ensures that they are attended to by doctors. Age-related health issues have never been a deterrent to Ramaswamy. Living on his pension, he travels on buses to various hospitals for his daily duty towards the disempowered and sick strangers. A recent eye operation for which he was advised to stay at home to prevent infections held him back only for a few days. The foot soldier is back on the ground. If you find a bespectacled man with a patient, filling up a form, speaking to the doctors, or at the dispensary buying medicines for them, you know it’s got to be Ramaswamy. His biggest assets are compassion, unending reserves of humanity, kindness, and a smile that can light up the darkest tunnel of despair and hopelessness. He has refused public recognition. He thanks his mentor and noted counselor Ali Khwaja of ‘Helping Hands’ for showing him the way and for Ali, he is yet to see a better human than Ramaswamy in his over four decades of voluntary service. Watching him can be the biggest destresser and motivation. He will regale you with stories on rocket science, scientists, and ordinary people over masala dosae and coffee in a hospital canteen. The treat is always Ramaswamy’s.
(The writer’s views are her own)