Prasanna Jyothi Site visit from Arvind and Ashwini:


We visited Prasanna Jyothi on 21st June, 2006. We called up Ratnamami(Ratnamami and sudarimami are the main people who manage Prasanna Jyothi) in the morning and let her know that we would want to visit the place the same day in a couple of hours. Ratnamami mentioned that she would not be available as she was busy with some personal work, but Kusuma would be available to answer any of our questions. She also provided the drivers cell number to co-ordinate our pickup. Kusuma lives in Prasanna Jyothi, she is currently doing her third year engineering. Being the eldest amongst the rest, she takes the responsibility of managing the children whenever needed. 

We reached Prasanna Jyothi in the evening around 5pm after the children have all been picked up from school and dropped home. We had called the driver, and he was nice to pick us up at a known location, and drive us to Prasanna Jyothi. When we arrived, Kusuma was there at the entrance and she led us to the hall where all the children were seated. They all respectfully stood up to wish us. We then spoke to each of the children asking their names, which standard they were studying. Most of them talked the local language (Kannada) but were comfortable speaking in English as well. Along with Kusuma, was a tenth standard girl Asha who with Kusuma was helping us speak to all the children as many of these kids were shy to talk to us in the beginning. Later the kids started getting comfortable with us, and they started singing songs and dancing. We had taken a bunch of books and toys for the children. The kids got very excited when we started opening them one at a time; all the younger kids wanted all the toys and the elder kids were interested in the books. We started distributing the games to all the children. They got all excited and got busy playing them. Some children took up crayons and made very nice drawings.

The music teacher arrived, and all the kids were sent to another room to learn Music from the Music teacher.The music teacher visits twice a week, Monday and Thursday. He gets paid for the service (Since ratna mami wasn't available we couldn't know the salary of the teacher). We took the opportunity to talk to various other members at PJ. I spoke to the warden 'Madhu'. She lives in PJ and her responsibilities include taking care of the house, cooking food, taking care of the children. She also helps younger children with their homework when Ratnamami and/or Sundarimami aren't around. Madhu has two kids, a boy and a girl and they both stay with her brother in their native village. Her sister Anusuya also stays along with Madhu. Anasuya's husband passed away because of a snake bite, and she lives there with her sister helping her and PJ in day to day activities such as washing clothes,taking care of the kitchen, cooking food etc.
Ashwini went with Kusuma and took a small tour around the place. There are two floors with three large rooms and three bathrooms/toilets in each of the floors. We found the house clean and well maintained. One of the rooms had a computer for the elder kids. In one of the rooms, we were excited to see a number of pots decorated by the kids with colorful paint. They had used these pots in one of the dance performances when the founder Nityananda swamiji was around.

We talked to the driver who is available to pick and drop the children from home to school and back. He also picks and drops Ratnamami and Sundarimami.He is present in PJ from morning till evening.The groceries are also done using the same van.Once in a week Ratnamami and/or Sundari mami go to Jayanagr market to do the groceries.

On a typical day, the younger kids wake up around 5am and they are made ready to go to school by Ansuya and Madhu.The driver picks the children and drops them to school. The school starts at 7:30 am. Younger kids are dropped back home by 12:30 pm. The kids then have lunch and sleep in the afternoon. The older kids are dropped back home by 4:00 pm.They freshen up, and they all have a prayer. After the prayer, they have some leisure time to play. On Monday and Thursday, they learn Music from the Music teacher.In the evening, all the kids are helped to do their homework till dinner.

During festivals children go to Sundari mami/ Rathna mami's place and stay over night.When we visited PJ, three of the elder children were staying with Rathna mami's place to help her with some personal work.They were staying there out of thier own interest.

Above was the background of our visit. The reasons for our site visit is to generally get an idea of how well the home is being run, and also clarify any questions/doubts that we may have.

One of the questions we had was regarding the children of the people who work there. For example, the Warden. Why is it that the warden's children are not staying/studying with the other kids in this home? It is the policy of PJ that anyone who works in PJ, cannot have their children live with them there. We wanted to know the rationale for having this policy. We asked these questions to the warden, and we found out that the reasons are two fold. One, they are concerned that the parents might be partial to their children compared to other children. They might provide more attention/care compared to the other children. Second reason was that the other children there would get a feeling of 'missing their parents' seeing the parents give more attention. We asked these questions to SUndarimami, and we got the same response from her as well.

Miscellaneous information:
1. We had a total count of 19 kids in the orphanage; one kid (one and half years old) had joined just a week back, and they were expecting another kid in the next week. The numbers generally vary between 18 - 22 as many single parents leave their kids at PJ, only to come and pick them up in a month or so. PJ wants to cap at 25 and are working towards having upto 25 children. They also would prefer kids who aren't older than 5 years old, as it gets harder to take care of kids if they join at a later age.

2. We asked about the legality involved in returning the kids back to the single parent. They said that they have the single parent sign a legal document, every time they get the child into PJ and take them out of PJ. We wanted to see one of those documents, but we couldn't because Ratna mami wasn't available that day.

3. They are planning to build another elevated home similar to the one they have, as the place gets flooded due to the proximity of the lake during rainy season.

4. Watchman lives with his family in the small house inside the PJ compound, but is not a part of the orphanage.

5. During summer, children attend summer camps.Activities during the camp include music, painting, claywork, dancing. Most of these classes were daily morning to evening classes held during summer.A bus was reserved for a month to pick up the kids in the morning and drop them back in the evening.

Our take away from our site vist was that we think that PJ is doing a good job of taking care of the orphanage; we currently do not have any issues related to the way it is run, and will continue to fund the organization.


- Ashwini and Arvind