THE MAKING OF BABA AMTE ... contd



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      In June 1951 a small party moved into this forbidding wilderness. It comprised Muralidhar Indu, their two baby sons, six badly maimed leprosy patients, a lame cow and a dog, which within a few days was taken by a tiger. Between them they had four shovels three pick axes, a saw, two axes and fourteen rupees (2 dollars in 195 1 ) in pocket.

      They cleared a patch of ground and built two small shelters with thatched roofs on bamboo poles. Digging a well into the hard basalt took almost two months Bv midday the temperature would soar upto 50 degrees centigrade. Out of what in physical terms seemed an ostensibly hopeless venture, Anandwan ( Forest of Joy) was born.

      Within three years, there was a community of 60 leprosy patients, who together with the Amtes had dug six wells and cleared enough land to yeild a substantial harvest of grains and vegetables. Not only to meet their own requirements, but to sell in the as well.






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