Hyderabad: Tying Rakhi to priest lets woman hear again

Hyderabad: Rakhi Challenge, which was begun by Chilkuri Balaji Temple here, according to which a male devotee has to adopt any woman as his lifetime sister once she ties Rakhi, has helped a woman to get treatment for her hearing impairment. The woman Ms Kamalamma had been suffering due to hearing loss since several years. She tied Rakhi to the temple’s Hereditary Archaka C.S. Rangarajan and he took her to the hospital and got a check-up done.

Ms Kamalamma, a flower vendor at bus stops near Mehdipatnam, never imagined that her 30-long years of hearing trouble would get resolved if she ties a simple Rakhi to a temple priest. After she heard about the challenge, she went to the temple and tied Rakhi to the priest, after one Pavan Kumar, a volunteer at the temple, encouraged her.

Someone mentioned to the priest that she has a long-term problem. Next day itself, the priest took the woman to the Gandhi Hospital, by picking her up from Mehdipatnam, where Dr Srikanth treated Kamalamma. 

The doctors mentioned that she gradually lost 90 per cent of hearing ability as she is being continuously exposed to high horn sounds at the workplace and she also developed an ear infection. Medicines were given for the infection and it costed around Rs 50,000 for a quality hearing aid for which the priest is looking for sponsors.

Speaking to this newspaper, priest C.S. Rangarajan said that firstly, he was moved by the overwhelming response that the challenge received and was touched when a devotee tied Rakhi to him. He added that he would now adopt her as his sister and look after her. “This is what a Rakhi can do. It can bring unknown people close to an extent where they become family,” he said.

Kamalamma mentioned that she used to regularly visit Chilkur Temple and went to the temple with one Shiva as her brothers were out of town. She celebrated the festival by tying a Rakhi to the priest and is happy that he has accepted her as a life time sister.