Word: nirmala
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Lying on her back on a mud floor, Mallai looks nervous as a nurse bends down to examine her. After losing two children at their birth, the 27-year-old farmer's wife is frightened for the baby that is due soon. Nirmala Palsamy, the nurse who is visiting this makeshift clinic in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, is also worried. This fetus is in an incorrect position. "You know that you might need an operation, don't you?" she asks her patient. Mallai bursts into tears. Nirmala patiently explains that a caesarean surgery will help the baby...
...India finally has a more humane--and effective--population policy, much of the credit goes to people like Nirmala, 32, who heads the Village Health Nurse Association in Tamil Nadu. The typical nurse in the group zips around on a moped to visit 5,000 or more people under her care. Treating all sorts of ills and offering contraceptive tips, she leaves smiles on the faces of patients like Mallai...
Long before the Cairo conference, Nirmala complained about the birth-control numbers game, but superiors told her she would be "suspended" if she challenged policy. Only in 1992 did she get a real hearing, when S. Ramasundaram took over Tamil Nadu's family-welfare program. Nirmala told him that birth-control targets made mothers distrust nurses and resist the policy. Later, she said nurses would forgo the sterilization bonuses if allowed to do their jobs without so much government interference...
...without the expectation of receiving anything but gratitude from her congregation of the poor, sick, dying and abandoned. In Calcutta she was free to live and carry out her life's mission in a state that has for many years been governed by a communist majority. Her successor, Sister Nirmala, was free to give up her Hindu religion and embrace Mother Teresa's philosophy in the Roman Catholic tradition. And politicians of many a hue were wary about interfering with her goodness. Weep not, for much good has come from this frail and wonderful woman. LEKHA SUBAIYA New Orleans
Teresa sent her to law school and made her the Missionaries' legal counsel. In 1965 Nirmala traveled to Venezuela to establish the order's first overseas mission; four years later, she was called back to Calcutta to join its contemplative wing, which emphasizes the mystical power of prayer, something dear to the heart of Teresa. As time went on, Nirmala acted as Teresa's nurse and companion. Now it is her turn to rely on Teresa's spiritual guidance. Even though she may be afraid, she has said, "Looking at God, I am sure I will be able...