bkti-pit wrote:I can draw a parallel between Janki and Mother Teresa but in my eyes Vinay Lakshmi's endeavour was of an entirely different nature.
Parallels or otherwise :
Mother Teresa's mission was essentially palliative care, not a hospital, while Dr Lakshmi's was a local hospital (despite the "Global" name attached). The parallel with DJ that ex-l mentions is to do with fundraising that had substantial amounts that went elsewhere other than what was represented, like the actual charity mission.
As far as I know (little), the accounts of the Global Hospital and donations to it are completely separated from the BKWSU. If GH is mentioned as part of any fundraising effort or explanation of where general donations to the BKs generally go - all the 'good works' they do, that would be wrong.
Many BKs donate directly to the GH fund rather than 'Baba's box' because of this. They prefer their money went to practical real service than getting lost in the quagmire of the huge BK organisation where it may be spent on frivolous gold hats, bogus certificates, badges, unaudited travel costs, or support centre-wassis who do no productive work (only BK Admin, PR and leading classes), have sevadaris and drivers at their call, etc. The hospital, like medical services generally in India, doesn't charge fees and runs on donations. (I went to a Doctor in an affluent suburb of Bombay once, I had conjuctivitis. He gave me a prescription, I asked "How much for the consultation?" , he pointed me to a donation box in the corner).
GH is handily established to treat the large cohort of BKs in the Abu region, many who come from a distance, as well as the services to the locals.
Teresa's mission sought out the destitute and homeless who were extremely sick and dying in the streets who had no-one to ameliorate their suffering. It was not a place where Catholic priests, nuns or bureaucrats went for treatment (- a double-edge to that, it may have been better resourced if they did). I know Calcutta has improved over the years, not sure how much, but it was a real horror in the recent past. And the population is not shrinking.
I was there in the early 1980's, and at night, as stores closed and traffic died, the pavements filled with people laying out thin sheets as beds on the hard asphalt with their belongings. Walking a few kilometres and all the pavements were filled like this. One trip was across the Hooghly river (and the far-from-glistening) Diamond Harbour to what were called 'suburbs' but were really unplanned, tightly packed shanty towns. It seemed to be where the 'lower middle class' and "working poor" people lived - school teachers, clerks, labourers etc. It stank.