ANANDWAN - THE FOREST OF JOY ... contd
Today there are four such communes in Anandwan (each in Baba's words, "a Kibbutz of the sick") where nearly 2,500 people live, making it one of the largest communities of physically challenged people in the world. These include about 1,500 leprosy patients and cured leprosy patients and another 1,000 people with various physical disabilities, including the visually impaired, hearing and speech impaired, as also orphans.
Apart from Sukh Sadan, there are Mukti Sadan - the House of freedom, Krishi Sadan- the house of Farms, and Mitrangan - the Patio for friends. Baba's defiant, irrepressible spirit celebrates friendship anytime anywhere with anybody a spirit so powerful that it surges beyond caste, class, politics or disease. It is this spirit of openness that has stood by the people of Anadwan as they have made their unconventional choices in life partners or friends. They remain unassuming about the significance of their togetherness for a world, still occuplied with finding ways of living together. All the couples are married in community ceremonies held with traditional festivity.
