The home for the mentally disabled woman is truly a gift of peace. Not of peace as it is defined by wordly standars: "the absence of tension", but peace that comes with the understanding of freedom. Not as freedom of having the license of doing whatever we want, but freedom of being who we truly are without the fear of being judgde for being "different".
My life with the women at Shanti Dan has been an amazing human experience and here are some of the stories...
Mona has a speech problem. Even though this "disability" she has a great ability to laugh and make anyone laugh. She was brought from Delhi where her family lives. Due to an accident her husband lost his legs and because of the great poverty that followed the tragedy from the inability for him to work and support the family Mona was sent to a Mother Teresa home, her 3 children sent with their grandparents, and her husband to a home for disabled men. Even though she is far from her family in Delhi she is able to laugh and make anyone laugh with her child-like spirit and hilarious sense of humor.
If you would ask Sima how old is she, I think she would say 1. I have to admit that she is my favorite. When I was told that the children orphanage had enough volunteers I was a little sad that I was not going to be around children, but little to know, I met Sima, a 1 year old loving soul. She could not speak, read or write, finish a puzzle or put the square into the square box but certainly she was just content with herself and easily satisfied.
The first time I meet Dalym she was very rough and moody. She would scream and punch me. By the end of my time in Shanti Dan she was calling me "didi", the older sister. With her I realized that my time there was not in vain. Every day I did not know if the ladies ever recognized me and knew that I was getting really attached to them. Surely when she stopped calling me "auntie" and started calling me "didi" she showed me that she cared for me as I did for her and that every day our relationship was growing.
Sima "painting". She definetly cannot stay within the lines, but she can love outside all parameters of what society defines as "acceptable".
Alo means "light" in hindi. Surely her smile brought so much light into my life and so did her tears when I told her I was going to leave Calcutta. Every day she will ask me for crayons and paper to draw her flowers. Everytime I asked her to make something different she would first stare at me like if I was crazy to ask her such thing, and the she would crack up in a histerical laughter. She probably thought that I was a "crazy" didi...
There are many women with different conditions in Shanti Dan. Some of them suffer of depression and lay down all day, most of the time you can find them in this baby position. It is not so easy to connect with some of them but I am sure that our presence and our efforts to confort them can be a good start...
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Sounds of children playing from a nearby village are for some women a melancholic memory of the past
Every day life
Arts and crafts
Radio, the conection with the outside world 
Selma faithfully waiting for the aunties every day. She would be the first one to greet us and the last one to hug us.
Nirmala, always quiet and lonelyThe women at Shanti Dan (gift of peace) are considered "mentally disabled" but I consider them the most mentally able people to love and be loved. I have spent with them a month where I grew to become their "didi", the older sister (you have to go through being an auntie first). It has been an amazing experience to share life with this ladies. Meditations in life and its meaning, life and death, ordinary and extraordinary, so many things have been challenging me during this time and I thank Shanti Dan for such amazing gift to my life.