Diwali sweets for 400 patients and relatives at Tata, KEM hospitals; saris for 75 women

Diwali brings joy and sweetness into everyone's life, but patients undergoing treatment in hospitals and their relatives often miss out on the festival's cheer. To bring a smile to their faces, Saurabh Mitra Mandal took up an initiative. Through its Annamitra Satkarya, the mandal presented Diwali snack boxes weighing one kilogram each to more than 400 patients, their relatives and needy people on the Tata and KEM hospital premises. In addition, saris were distributed to 75 needy women.

When a member of a household is admitted to hospital, the whole family's attention stays fixed on the treatment and the patient's health. Amid financial hardship and worry over treatment, the joy of the festival is left behind. Many such patients and their relatives on the Tata and KEM hospital premises remain far from Diwali celebrations. The mandal took up the initiative in the hope of bringing a little sweetness into their lives.

The initiative rested on the financial help of many donors, the hard work of volunteers and a sense of social responsibility. The programme was held under the leadership of Annamitra Sanjay Somnath Shetye. Notably, the work, which began five years ago with 150 snack boxes, has this time reached more than 400 people. With a growing number of donors and the encouragement of fellow members, the reach of the mandal's social work is widening.

Sanvi Pednekar, Ashalata Khanolkar, Nupur Khanolkar, Pralhad Gavre, Ujjwala Gavre, Ashok Gorivale, Sulabha Gorivale, Vipul Chheda, Sanjay Meena, Sunita Kotian, Prasad Korgaonkar, Jyotsna Gupte, Dilip Kadam, Manmohan Nimbalkar, Sattar Shaikh and Kalpana Waria gave financial help for the snack boxes.

The mandal's general secretary, Mangesh Varvadekar, appealed for more sensitive donors to join this work of including the needy in one's own joy. He said the sentiment behind a donation matters more than its size. The initiative conveyed the message that Diwali is truly sweet only when a little of one's own happiness is shared in someone else's life.