Hindustan Times
Let’s bring light in their lives!
I happened to visit Tata Memorial Hospital during my Mumbai stint. There was so much pain all around. The only heartening news was the quality time spent by some people, including the two Bollywood stars Salman Khan and Vivek Oberoi, with cancer patients.
However, the superhero was Mario Pinto, associated with the Palliative Care centre of TMH. The task that he had cut out for himself was to make death easy for the patients.
Here I narrate his daily routine — visits to the hospitals where patients impatiently wait to kiss death. I was with pinto then. The boy was in a bad shape; his stomach had swollen, his legs grown huge. The very sight was depressing.
Holding him close to his heart Pinto whispered softly in his ears “Cry, if you feel like. I also cry. We all cry. But HE( God) is waiting there, with open arms to embrace you. Push your fears under his feet. He will take good care of you and the family you are leaving behind.”
With this he planted a kiss on 18-years-old Lincoln Fernande’s forehead.
The boy sobbed silently.
Pinto was preparing him for his last journey- peaceful and comfortable.
Lincoln was in his advanced stage of cancer. He died soon thereafter. Lincoln’s agony kept haunting me through out the night. But Pinto slept. As later he told me, “ I can’t afford burnouts, as next day there is another dying patient needing some solace somewhere in the city”.
Pinto by now has lost count of the patients he had advised to ‘kiss death’. He only looks down at his two hands and says, “They may have cupped faces of at least 3000 dying patients in a decade’s time.”
Welcoming life is fun, not bidding it an adieu. But nothing puts Pinto off his mission – neither the stink nor the maggot that sometimes come with disease. What keeps him going is the smile on the dying patient’s face. And it was this urge to go ‘beyond the ordinary’ that he quit his plush assignment in Saudi Arabia and father’s publishing house to work for the dying patients.
Why? The answer is “I love human beings, the best commodity God made.
Imagine knowing others, sharing their joys and sorrows, and being with them in their crisis.”
He is one person who inspired me most. And I write about him to inspire others. May be some amongst us would step into his shoes to bring light in the lives of many —- the ailing, the aged and the underprivileged.
(5 votes, average: 4.8 out of 5)
Loading ...Posted by Sunita Aron on Tuesday, October 13, 2009 at 7:17 pm
Filed under India · Tagged Bollywood stars Salman Khan, cancer patients, Mumbai, Tata Memorial Hospital, Vivek Oberoi
“I love human beings, the best commodity God made.
The words touched me inside out.
I often visit to special children school and spend time with mentally retarded and autistic children. They are full of innocence and honesty. They don’t have malicious feelings for any one and they always see good in others. Earlier I used to think why did God make them that way. Now I think why didn’t God made us all like that.
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Pankaj Reply:
October 14th, 2009 at 5:13 am
human beings are not a “commodity”!
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sunita Reply:
October 14th, 2009 at 7:01 pm
Manjari,
I wish mor could think like you.
And Pankaj- try to understand sentiments —
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Wow.. I felt this article
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sunita Reply:
October 14th, 2009 at 7:02 pm
Sumit
then I have been successful in my mission - I wanted people to feel and not just read the words. Thanks
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He is one person who inspired me most ,you write in last para and see what is happening ?Hundreds and thousands of readers are getting inspired by reading your column. Thank You.
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sunita Reply:
October 19th, 2009 at 1:02 pm
thanks
and he inspired me too — but I will need lots of guts to step into his shoes-
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When one looks at the other extreme end of “healthy” human commodity it is the most unpredictable animal. One Mario Pinto negates them all !
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sunita Reply:
October 19th, 2009 at 1:04 pm
Yes he does. When I told him I am going to write on u, his reply was straight- why me ? Whatever I am doing is for myself I don’t want any publicity
It took me long to convince to be written than writing the article
imagine our dear politicians who want to be written all the time
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BY writing such article you are making blog reading a serious matter. It is not simple entertainment but something more than that . The story would open the eyes of those who dont take care of oldies and terminally ill people , I hope.Thank you again.
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sunita Reply:
October 19th, 2009 at 1:00 pm
Tks for appreciation,
Personally speaking blogs should do all - entertain, inform, inspire—
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HAPPY DIWALI TO ALL
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sunita Reply:
October 19th, 2009 at 12:59 pm
Happy diwali to all of you
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For the last few lines I can say just one word, Amen.
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