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Padma Shri Sindhutai, Mother of Orphans, leaves behind a legacy like no other

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Akshata Kamath
Akshata KamathJan 05, 2022 | 15:24

Padma Shri Sindhutai, Mother of Orphans, leaves behind a legacy like no other

Sindhutai Sapkal, the ‘Mother of Orphans’ who spent her entire life looking after the abandoned and the destitute, suffered a massive cardiac arrest and breathed her last on January 4, 2022, in Pune at the age of 74. She had undergone a surgery on November 24, 2021, for a large diaphragmatic hernia but later developed a lung infection.

Sindhutai will receive a state funeral in Pune. 

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Dr. Sindhutai Sapkal. Illustration: Geetanjali
Dr Sindhutai Sapkal. Illustration: Geetanjali, DailyO

So, why was she so famous? You might remember her from this KBC episode where Amitabh Bachchan touched her feet.  

HER STORY 

She could see the tall yellow flames from a distance. Something in her urged her to walk towards it. As she walked wearily towards the burning pyre of a dead man, the yellow flames continued to rise. Near the burning pyre were a couple of raw bhakris. She took them, roasted them on the burning pyre and ate them silently.

A 9-month pregnant Sindhutai was unconscious when she was thrown into a cowshed by her husband and left to die. She gave birth in that state, in the cowshed, all by herself. When she was finally able to make sense, she saw a cow standing next to her. The cow was guarding her against the other cows from trampling over her and her newborn. When she had to cut the sacred umbilical cord, she had to do it with a stone. A stone. She hit the stone 16 times to cut the cord and when she finally did it, she just had one thought: No one should have to ever go through this experience ever in their lifetime. And if they do, she should be around, so that no one has to go through this. This moment had given her her purpose in life. 

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Sindhutai had been thrown out of her village because of a rumour that she was carrying someone else's baby and not her husband's. Her husband led this fight by throwing 4 stones at her and then ousting her publicly, while she was 9 months pregnant and about to give birth.

Now that she was all alone with the baby, she started begging and singing songs at railway stations with other beggars, to earn a living. She would often share her food with the other beggars and would get to stay with them in exchange. There were times when she stayed in crematoriums at night and ate from the leftovers that the relatives of the dead left, because she found humans scarier than ghosts and most humans were scared to visit crematoriums at night. 

This gave her another purpose: No one should be hungry and if she found someone who was hungry, she should be the one to offer something to them. That would fill her soul’s appetite. Nothing else mattered. 

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One day, Sindhutai found an abandoned baby on the street and it reminded her of her aloneness. She took the baby, adopted him unofficially and took care of him from her savings she made by begging. She adopted more kids over the years and similarly took care of all of them by using whatever she earned. Over the years, she started building orphanages to support the abandoned kids by donations and contributions she received from all over the globe. 

HER WORK 

Dr Sindhutai Sapkal won over 750 awards for her work and used all the money from the awards to further her cause. She was awarded the Padma Shri in 2021 and the Nari Shakti Puraskar in 2017. She also won the Mother Teresa Award for Social Justice in 2013 and the Ahilyabai Holkar Award in 2010 from the Maharashtra government. 

A movie based on her life, Mee Sindhutai Sapkal, bagged 4 National Awards at the 58th National Film Awards. As on date, she has raised over 1,050 orphan children, has more than 207 sons-in-law and 36 daughters-in-law, and more than 450 grand children, all who are an active part of the society. 

HER INSPIRATIONAL SPEECHES

Being the extraordinary orator that she was, she often spoke of her struggles like it was nothing but life lessons. The most impactful story was when she narrated the story of her husband's return to Amitabh Bachchan on Kaun Banega Crorepati. She spoke about how she had learnt to forgive her husband because her husband's acts were the only reason she was forced to find a way out and create a better life for others. Her husband subsequently apologised and returned to her orphanage; not as a husband, but as her kid.

She had a lot of pride in being a US-return Navvari lady, because she did not expect a life where she would travel to more than 22 countries, in a Navvari saree, and be respected by people across the globe. As she travelled abroad, her followers would shout out lovingly, "Jai Maharashtra, Navvari Best!"

She often encouraged people in her TED Talks and speeches to question their lives and find answers to questions like:

  • What is your life purpose?
  • Why do you wake up every morning?

She encouraged the youth to learn to not let sorrows shatter them, and to learn to wake up with happiness every morning. She once said this is Marathi: ‘Kaffan jaloo dya, pan tumhi daffan hou naka’ - meaning, let the dead body burn, but you should not die. 

She would often preach about walking on a flowery path laid with tiny thorns that might hurt us. "It was our job to learn to accept the pain, because the thorn itself never knew how it felt to be pricked and only knew how to exist in that manner. It was our duty to strenghten our feet and walk without letting the thorns hurt us."  

For someone who could not attend school as a child beyond Class 4, she had quite a lot of life lessons to teach everyone. She was awarded a Honorary Doctorate by Dr DY Patil College of Engineering, Pune, in 2016. 

Such a legendary and an inspirational life!  

Last updated: January 05, 2022 | 16:44
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