Since I started volunteering with Cuddles I have been dedicating my daughters’ birthday to those poor children who don’t get enough food to fight the deadly disease called cancer. I lost my father to cancer when he was just 42 and I hope no one has to loose a loved one to it ever. This is the 3rd consecutive year since I have done this and now my P knows what’s to be done. Even as I was making the list of the guests, she told me “Ma don’t forget to tell everyone that they don’t have to bring gifts and have to bring money for the Cuddles children” I was happy. I was doing something right that my daughter understands the worthlessness of the gifts we get in a birthday party.

Don’t tell me that you have never seen the gifts received and said ‘Now what am I to do with all this crap’ At least 50% are not usable or the kids have something similar. And the balance 50% are pure indulgence. In this era of plenty do our kids really need more toys than they already have? What do you do? Pass it on at the next birthday party. Since a couple of years I have made it a policy not to even give gifts. Instead, I give an amazon gift voucher or a Full of Toys voucher so that the birthday kid can get something of their choice. If not now, then within the next one year, and it’s been much appreciated.

Talking about the NGO I volunteer with, Cuddles Foundation. We provide holistic nutrition to cancer afflicted malnourished children. To do this, we tie up with government or charitable hospitals and place a nutritionist on our payroll there. (It should be noted that all government hospitals do not have a nutritionist, leave alone paediatric.) People usually give free or concession on treatment. But no one realises that without the proper nutrition, the chemo will only have adverse effects. To bridge this gap this foundation was started 6 years ago in Mumbai. It’s currently present in 10 cities and 19 hospitals. If you would like to read more about Cuddles or donate, you can do it here

After I published my last article a very close friend of mine sent me a fb live video of a friend of hers , whose 3 year old son has cancer. It was heartbreaking to see that strong mommy speak her thoughts. The one thing she said was “speak up”. You never know what you say might be comforting or sending more power to another. She spoke about an instance where a complete stranger said something about her son which just gave her more hope and power to deal with her son’s condition. My heart goes out to her and I hope her son makes a full recovery.

When I visit the hospital I just see so much hope around. These little children are so full of life and energy that you can hardly believe that they are suffering from this life threatening disease. They probably haven’t seen enough life to know what it is. They have no fear. Neither of pain nor of death. They don’t know what it is. It is us adults, who develop these fears as we grow older. We grow up with our own inhibitions based on certain experiences of life. When we are faced with trying situations we react. Sometimes normally sometimes over react. It’s us who need to get control of our feelings. Coz these little angels don’t even know what they mean yet.