Best NGO in Kolkata
13/12/2018
Our parents toil hard to raise us from little infants to adults. From holding our little hands and teaching us
to walk to singing lullabies to put us to sleep parents sacrifice a lot so that their children can be happy. But
what happens when we grow up? They give us their best and we grow up, get good jobs abroad, get
married, and get settled far far away from our parents. Tired and old eyes keep looking at the street from the
window of some old-age home, awaiting the arrival of their children but all in vain.
Petals visited an Old Age Home in Bansdrani named Navonir (female section).
Every mother had a story to tell and every story pierced like arrows into our hearts. They have been abandoned by their own children. We have seen these mothers yearning for a cup of coffee. “It has been so so long since anyone invited us somewhere to have a good and tasty treat”, they said to us. The first time we went there to celebrate Winter and Poush Parbon festival with them was on 13th December 2018. We played quizzes and solved riddles with them over coffee and Bengali special sweet ‘Patisapta’. There were prizes and we
saw our mothers competing with one another like little children to win prizes! We had long talks over coffee
and snacks. How can any soul be away from these angels? We wrapped new blankets around them with
love. We promised them that we will come back soon. We were back again in a few months to celebrate
Akshay Tritiya and Mother’s Day with them. So to keep our promise and mostly because we could
not stay away from our angels, we were back again on 7th May 2019. We found out that they were facing
trouble while arranging for the rice to feed themselves. So our dear Petal Ishita Chakraborty took up the charge of giving them 100kgs of rice. We took them for a dinner date to Kimli Restaurant which is owned by our dear Petal Ratna Bose. There were music and merrymaking on the way and every mother enjoyed themselves fully. We tried our best to give them the feeling of being their children. They hugged us tight and whispered in our ears, “Please tell us you will come back again, tell us you will visit these abandoned mothers again”. There were tears in their as well as our eyes. We will be back
again very soon to our Mothers.
Event happened:
December 13, 2018, & May 7, 2019
13/10/2018
Petals have always thought of doing extraordinary and unique projects that people have never thought of before. 2018 Durga Puja saw one such project – PRERNA AWARD
13th of October 2018 we paid homage and awarded 9 people who belong to the underprivileged section of society with a very weak financial condition or helpless situation but all these hurdles of life have not been able to defeat them. They have beaten all odds of life and have worked hard to support their families. Petals arranged for a grand felicitation of these people by some very respectable people of the society. We have named this award as Prerna Award. Prerna in Hindi means Inspiration. These people and their lives will inspire many. We bow our heads down in respect for these extraordinary people.
People who have received the awards are
1. 75 years old Laxmi Rani Das who delivers roti to houses
2. 70 years old garbage cleaner Sayra Bibi
3. 52 years old Joyeb Manna Rickshaw puller
4. 85 years old grass cutter Bande Oraon.
5. 75 years old vegetable peddler Bimal Kumar Mondal
6. 78-year-old housemaid Bhanumati Dhara
7. 40 years old blind agarbati seller Kakoli Barui
8. 28 years old handicapped (severed legs) agarbati seller Raja Chowdhury
9. 40 years old widow Mita Karmakar who makes dresses for deity idols.
Our Cheif guests who have handed over the awards
1) MR. DEBASHIS PAUL
2) DR. SABUJ KUNDU
3) MR. RADHA KANTA BHAR
4) MRS. MANJUSREE BANERJEE
5) MRS. TANUSREE CHAKRAVARTY
24/09/2018
“কিছু কথা ভাবতে ভাবতে চোখে এলো জল,
জলকে বললাম তুই, হঠাৎ কেন বাইরে এলি বল।
জল বললো চোখটি তোমার সুখ সৃষ্টির নীড়,
কি করে সইবো বলোএত কষ্টের ভীড়।”
Kolkata, the City of Joy, is all set to welcome its most celebrated festival, Durga Puja. Celebrations have begun everywhere; streets are lightened up, shopping for new dresses for the entire family is almost done and the menu is all decided for each day, with the prayers of avoiding rains during these five days at least. Otherwise, the new dress may get quenched in water, the shoes may get dirty, and most important, the night-out plans may get canceled. But, maybe H listened to his children of this city, but Kerala is drowning. Maybe the rains have stopped by then, but the water levels have
submerged everything in it. People are left homeless and hungry. Maybe, the child at our home is happy with his new belongings, but a child there, who lost his parents in this flood, is left all alone, without any hope. So, PETALS decided to stand beside them in their tough times. We have our ongoing project “One buck, one life” which was initiated with the intention of saving the lives of people in their difficult phase. The project calls for One Rupee per person per month, something which was a matter of joke to many in the beginning, but has now been able to collect a considerable amount, enough to help some of the flood sufferers, at least.
So, PETALS contacted the Maharaj of Bharat Seva Ashram on the 24th of September, 2018, and is glad to announce that it could raise, maybe not too much, but enough to save some families,
perhaps. We believe that our worship of Maa Durga is accomplished, because a mother always wants her children to stand beside each other in need, and PETALS also tried to follow the same
path.
27/07/2018
Nature is the most beautiful creation of God; the lush green trees, the everlasting blue sea, the upright hills, and so on. But did we ever think why are these pleasing to us? It is because He has blessed us with the ability to see, He has gifted us with the best possible, our eyes. But unlike us, there are many other friends of ours who have the same feeling, same hopes, and desires, but due to some unavoidable reasons, cannot fulfill their wish to cherish this nature. So, PETALS having felt the pain of his other blind friend facing difficulty in his day-to-day life decided to organize an eye donation camp for its members. It was agreed upon to have this Noble deed done on the auspicious day of Guru Purnima, 27th of July 18 dedicating this to each one’s Guru or teacher. Starting from the age of 18 to 92, PETALS got a response from approximately 450 of its members. One of our very dear members, Dr.Sabuj Kundu, an IIT Professor, who could not manage to come down in person for this event, sent his wife Dr.Bidisha Barik with both their forms from Kanpur. Another respectable member of ours, Mr. & Mrs.Tanushree Chakroborty, who had to leave abroad for some work, had sent their forms beforehand. Most astonishing was, when our 18-year-old member, Krishna Ladha came up with his form in his hand and expressed his wish that after him, let his other two friends also see this beauty of God, left us awe-struck.
PETALS believes that its teaching of sharing and unconditional love has made its roots strong, somewhere deep inside.
Anyone else, willing to make this world a beautiful place for someone else, can contact us.