Without Recognition, There Can Be No Compassion

Meet Dhanalakshmi - My Hero

During a trip to India in 2013, I had the opportunity to travel to Agra and visit the Taj Mahal. It was absolutely AMAZING.?

However,?this was not the best part of my trip. Rather, it was meeting Dhanalakshmi. She is my new hero. Dhanalakshmi is the head master of the Kannagi Nagar Government School in Chennai.?

I had the privilege of meeting her Tuesday, January 22nd. One of our business partners volunteers in Kannagi Nagar. They support the neighborhood Boys and Girls Clubs in cooperation with the local police and schoolmasters.??

After the Tsunami of 2004, over 15,000 affected fishermen and their families were relocated to Kannagi Nagar, which is a part of Thoraipakkam. You can reach this area via the Old Mahabalipuram Road (OMR), now known as the IT Expressway. It is basically a community of slum board tenements. The crime rate is high and every evening there is a big crowd in front of the police station because the residents have no place else to go. Bad roads, poor healthcare facilities, irregular water supply, overflowing sewage, and erratic power supply characterize the community. It’s been this way for years.??

We were invited by our business partner to join their volunteers in a ceremony to bless the construction of a water supply system for the school. Dhanalakshmi and her students greeted us as we arrived at the gated entrance to the schoolyard. We were first met by 4 young boys – from the Boys Club – who greeted us with a blessing. The next group consisted of 4 girls – representing the India Red Cross – who blessed us with tikkas on our foreheads. The third group was comprised of several girls form the Girls Club, who sang a short song for us.??

We were then led across the dirt playground to a makeshift dais – plastic chairs, fake flowers, and an intermittent speaker that was hot-wired to who knows what! In front of us were about 200 children – girls on the right, boys on the left – in their school uniforms, all barefoot, seated on the dirt ground. They were simply AMAZING!?

Dhanalakshmi and her students prepared a special program for us that consisted of a dance performed by 4 young girls, followed by a display of marital arts by the boys. The young men in these photos were the leaders. Dhanalakshmi explained to us that the children are taught martial arts to help them learn to focus. And, believe me, they were focused!?

Following these displays, the children dispersed and the blessing commenced. Dhanalakshmi patiently explained the importance of each element of the simple ceremony, modeled on the idea of Puja – making an offering or gift to a deity or important person and receiving their blessing in return. The bricks are the foundation, which in this case, are adorned with the offering of flower or Pushpa. Hindus often initiate the beginning of any new activity by breaking a coconut to ensure the blessing of the gods and successful completion of the activity. We began the ceremony with Dhupa – the burning of incense in front of the image. We concluded the ceremony with Naivedya – non-cooked sweet food.??

But that is still not the point of this story. The point of this story is Dhanalakshmi and her students. Respectful, joyful, engaged, talented – full of spirit, full of hope. I don’t know who they thought we were, but they were so PROUD to host us in their schoolyard, to honor us, to perform for us. And what we gave them was simply recognition. By taking the time to share in their ceremonies, we were acknowledging their being, their existence, and their truth. By being present, we gave them recognition.??And, without recognition, there can be no compassion.

Dhanalakshmi is my hero because of her selflessness to her students. She recognizes the worth and potential in each of her students. Indeed, she taught me the real value of recognition.??

I have much to learn from people like Dhanlakshmi. Not only did I gain insights into the real meaning of recognition, but it’s also reshaped my thinking about diversity. So often, as I did earlier in my trip to India, when I speak of diversity, I talk about celebrating our differences. Maybe the point of diversity is to celebrate our sameness. After all, am I really that different than the children I met at the Kannagi Nagar Government School???

That Tuesday afternoon in Kannagi Nagar has forever changed my life. Even more so than my visit to the Taj Mahal. Thank you, Dhanalakshmi. Today, I pray for peace, love, recognition, and compassion. For we are all in this together.