Dheera's Workshop of Whimsy

23/02/09

Slumdog Millionaire created a storm and some reputed news channels regrettably announced that India had won eight Oscars!  Very little was said by comparison about Smile Pinki.

The director, Megan Mylan was commissioned by a US based NGO to make a film on children born with cleft lip and palate. She needed an Indian field producer to help her identify such children and follow their story so that she could choose the most suitable one for her film. She contacted Nandini Rajwade, through the University of California, Berkeley network. Nandini, an ex- student of Sophia Polytechnic Bombay, has worked extensively on social, environment, development and human interest issues on shows like Living on the Edge and The Great Escape. She was also invited to Japan in her capacity as an environmental journalist for an international environmental conference in 1988. She did her Masters in journalism from Berkeley. 

            Then a mother of a few months old baby, Nandini was hesitant to take on the job which would take her away from her daughter for several weeks. Encouraged by her husband, she did take it on eventually and the result was rewarding.

After Nandini identified Pinki, she had to convince her reluctant parents to allow her to be operated by the doctors of ‘Smile Train.’ These children are generally ostracized by society and have to live a sad and lonely life. Not so Pinki. Thanks to Dr. Subodh Singh, director of plastic surgery at GS Memorial Plastic Surgery Hospital in Varanasi, Pinki presided at the Oscars instead of being marginalized and forgotten in her small village in Vanarasi.

If anyone would like to share a true human interest story, I would be most happy to hear about it.