I guess the word ‘Compassion’ is the most appropriate synonym for her name to be described, what an amazing and wonderful woman she is who is utterly filled with compassion and love for all the human beings. I would not be exaggerating in calling her the second Mother Teresa but she is one of her own kinds so no comparison should be applied here. She is Sindhutai who has observed the toughest phases of life, still she has come out with flying colours and most importantly she has become a ray of hope for the ones who have had no one to show them any hope (orphans). Sindhutai was born on November 14, 1948 at Pimpri Meghe village in Wardha district of Maharashtra. She was highly keen in pursing her education and wanted to study well, she used to use Bharadi tree leaves to write on as it was near to impossible for her family for even to afford a writing slate. But sooner her all aspirations to study, died because her family tied the knot of marriage in her very tender age of just 10 years. She was married to a 30 years old man who was extremely abusive and violent; Sindhu was thrown out of the home by her husband when she was 20 years and nine months pregnant. She tells that she gave birth to her baby girl in a cowshed and herself cut the umbilical cord of the infant. The physical and emotional pain completely shattered her, she was seeing no hope to live and survive. She did seek for a shelter in her mother’s home but they also inhumanly refused to give any assistance to Sindhu. Now, she was completely drowned into despair that she even thought of committing suicide but sooner gave the thought and began to beg at the railways platforms for survival of her daughter and herself. With time she continued to beg for her survival on the railway stations and she gradually realized that she alone is not surviving in such a miserable condition rather there are many orphan children who are living even more miserable life there. She met many orphan children who had been abandon by their parents and had to beg for their life. And there, this kind and great lady thought of making the biggest decision of her life, she decided to adopt those orphan children, she began to beg more seriously than before in order to feed those adopted children. Sooner they all became like a family, all used to sleep, sit and eat together and saw their parents in a single person; Sindhutai. Over a period of time, Sindhutai got acknowledged as the ‘mother of orphans’. Those children were not legally adopted by Sindhutai but she had raised them as her own children. She even gave her own biological daughter to Shrimant Dagdu Sheth Halwai in Pune so that her adopted children do feel to be secondary; today her daughter also runs an orphanage home. The whole scenario changed afterwards, she as the mother of all orphans began to look for more assistance and shelter for her children. In fact she tried to give education to many of those, a few of them are now lawyers, doctors and engineers. The kindness of hers could not remain hidden and people began to know about her soon, she has been awarded with more than 500 awards and all the money she had received from the awards was invested in the construction of bigger shelter homes for her orphan children. Today, she a mother, a mother-in-law, granny, and a grandmother, she has a huge family of 1400 orphans among which she has 207 sons-in-laws, 36 daughters-in-laws and over 1000 grandchildren. Sindhutai tells that as soon the general people came to know about her, she began to make a better use of her communication skills. She has been a very efficient speaker and she has given a number of speeches and has also earned some money from it. She says that hunger has made her a proficient speaker which is not bad at all at least this is a dignified way to make some income for her family and children. She talks inspirational things and motivates the people for doing kind actions. Today, six organizations are running under her name and she is persistently trying to raise the funds for the growth and development of her children. One of her children made a documentary based upon her life and in fact a Marathi movie called “Mee Sindhutai Sapkal” was inspired by her life story that also won a National Award. A very unique and interesting incidence took place in Sindhutai’s life that after a long time her husband came back to her and apologized to her for all his wrong deeds, and she quickly forgave him. But simultaneously she adopted her husband also as her eldest son, what a great lady she is! Because she had nothing else to give away to him except compassion and love she adopted her 80 years old husband and decided to take care of him as her other children. Sindhutai has been an epitome of Kindness and Compassion she is herself a great power that nurtures, protects and cares for the people around.
