The other day I visited the colony Bahadaporum. I have been to this colony now 6 times and have made good friends with many of the people in this colony. When I arrived last Thursday I sat down next to Krishnamurthy, who is so sick that he is literally skin and bones. His blood pressure is high, and as I sat next to him on his small cot tears streamed down his face due to pain in his lower legs. Krishnamurthy is blind due to side effects from leprosy and has a difficult time hearing out of one ear. As I sat next to him I was hesitant to turn on music. He started saying something to me in Tamil and I could not understand. As I sat there trying to understand I called to my friend Damadan who also suffers from Leprosy but speaks some English. He hobbled over to us and sat down. Krishnamurthy repeated what he had told me. Damadan looked up at me with tears in the one eye he could see out of and translated Krishnamurthy’s haunting words. “He wants to die,” Damadan translated, “He wants to return to God, I too want to die.” Without realizing it I felt my face and there were tears streaming down my face. I didn’t know what to do. So I sat there and told them both that I loved them. I took Krishnamurthy’s mangled and bent hands and just held them. Soon before I knew it we were doing simple movements together. We sat with each other for about five minuets doing simple gestural movements, working back and forth. As we finished he held my hands and whispered, “Sandosham” which means, Happy in Tamil. As I reflect on the situation today I’m not exactly sure how we transitioned from such a somber moment into moving and clapping our hands but I do know that movement is healing. These experiences along with many others have helped me see the great benefit of the movement arts.
Martha Graham said, “Some men have thousands of reasons why they cannot do what they want to, when all they need is one reason why they can.” That day in the colony Krishnamurthy had many reasons not to live however, I believe that through the movement arts I was able to give him at least one reason to keep on living and simply smile.
The last several pictures in this slide show were taken by Jennie Dozie.
Thousands of Tiny Miracles 