Mirzapur (Women's Feature Service) - Life has been tough for six year old Pinki. Born to poor parents, inhabitants of a small remote hamlet Rampur Dhabhi in Mirzapur, Pinki had since birth carried upon her fragile shoulders the burden of prejudice. Her cleft lips, the facial deformity, made people shun her, spurn her like an animal. She became a subject of ridicule and discrimination in the entire community. Infused with an intense inferiority complex her early childhood years - which should have been carefree ones - were spent in a cocoon, hiding behind her mother's sari 'pallu'. Nobody loved her. Nobody wanted to see Pinki. There was naked, open contempt all around her. While the elders considered her inauspicious and avoided her, the children laughed and made fun of her. Pinki started avoiding human contact. Laughter became alien to her; she stopped going near children. In short, Pinki forgot to smile. From the chinks of the shell, the safety wall that she had created around herself, Pinki watched the world go by knowing that she would never be part of it.
And then one day Pinki's black-and-white world, where she just got neglect and disrespect, suddenly turned into technicolour. A volunteer of Smile Train, the international organisation that does free surgery for cleft patients all over the world, spotted her. In just a few weeks, the neglected Pinki became the protagonist of the regional language documentary, 'Smile Pinki', made by Emmy-nominated producer Megan Mylan. The 39-minute film, which is in Hindi and Bhojpuri, with sub-titles in English, has won the Oscar in the short documentary category.
The film chronicles the 60-minute journey of Pinki that lead her from ostracism to acceptance following a cleft lip correction surgery. It was shot in the village and at the G.S. Memorial Plastic Surgery Hospital, in Varanasi, where Pinki was operated on by plastic surgeon Subodh Kumar Singh. Meeting Pinki in Dr Singh's clinic was a delightful experience. She had just returned from Delhi armed with the visa and passport that enabled her to attend the Oscar awards ceremony on February 22 in Los Angeles. Pinki was accompanied by her father Rajender Sonkar, a labourer, Dr Singh, and Mylan at the glittering ceremony at Kodak Theatre.
I tried to strike a conversation with Pinki, as she sat besides her father. But she was in no mood for a chat. Unmindful of the camera flashing, she kept sitting on the sofa playing with the two dolls that the Smile Train volunteers in Delhi had given her as a gift. Dressed in pink trousers, a multi-colour T-shirt and a pink pullover, she looked like any other child of her age from a modest family - a complete contrast to the earlier pictures of an insecure, introvert girl.
As soon as Dr Singh entered the room, Pinki pulled his digital camera out from his briefcase and started clicking. She took photographs of us, along with some of her doctor and her dolls. Amused and impressed, Dr Singh said proudly, "Pinki is doing so many things for the first time, including travelling by air, using escalators, living in five star hotels and I love it."
After a minute, he called out to Pinki. "Come here," he said. But she paid him no heed and continued playing with her dolls. He called her again. This time she looked up but answered firmly, "No."
Instead of getting angry Dr Singh smiled indulgently. "I am so very happy to hear this. Till yesterday this girl did not have the courage to say 'yes'. Now, she is confidently saying 'no'. Pinki has not just got back her smile, she has also got back her voice and self-esteem," said the good doctor. However, he added, "Frankly, for me, it is not just Pinki's case that is important, it is the issue. The surgery changed her life. The film is about a mission. It is not about one surgery. It is about creating awareness about the plight of cleft patients."
He is happy that through Pinki's case, global attention has been drawn to the cause of cleft patients and that there is awareness about the deformity and its easy surgical correction. "Pinki has given hope to million of Pinkies leading lives of anonymity, trauma and neglect. After all, one in 700 is a cleft case in India. There are 35,000 new cleft patients every year in the country. Out of the 4.7 million children in developing world who need this surgery, one million live in India," he said.
Dr Singh, who has 15 years experience in the field, said that as a plastic surgeon when he was asked to select a child from a huge number of photographs of children with cleft for the Smile Train documentary, he picked Pinki. "From the eyes of a plastic surgeon I found her a beauty, except for her lips. A minor operation could change this deformity forever. I was right," he recalled, adding that treating cleft children gives him instant happiness and satisfaction. It is gratifying because the results are visible in just an hour.
The G.S. Hospital, today, is a world leader in cleft surgery. Dr Singh has also initiated research in genetics, nutrition and other aspects, such as whether cleft has a region, caste or class connection.
Creating many more Pinkies with a smile and voice is a mission that he is on. He now hopes that Smile Train will chug on into the remotest Indian village where some little girl like Pinki is waiting to board it for Destination Happiness.
(Courtesy: Women's Feature Service)
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