By YOLLY Z. SOTELO

FROM dawn to early morning daily, about 600 persons receive the same inspirational text message on their mobile phones. The messages are passages from the Bible or the Koran, or quotations from motivational books.

The messages do not come from mobile phone companies and the recipients do not pay to receive them. They are religiously sent daily by Ashok Vasandani, an Indian national who started the “mission” to touch the people’s heart more than three years ago.

He explained that he sends the inspirational messages in the early morning, hoping that these will start the receivers’ day right and bright.

But more than being a message sender, Vasandani, 43, is known for his charitable works. He has helped, and continues to help, countless poor people especially those in need of medical care.

Vasandani, a businessman, pays for dialysis and ct scan procedures which are expensive and which poor patients can hardly afford. He can’t remember anymore the number of those who he has helped through the years.

He worked closely with Dr. Jesus Canto who was chief of the Region I Medical Center before he retired last April to join politics. (Canto won as city councilor).

Canto would call him if a patient needs financial support for medical procedures and medicine. And pronto, Vasandani would be at the hospital.

“I realized that after undergoing ct scan, the patient can’t afford to buy medicines, so it was useless if we don’t give medicines,” Vasandani said.

A “favorite” patient of his was a 14-year old boy from Bolosan village who was struck with tuberculosis but whose parents had no budget for his medicines. He learned about him in December 2005 when a village official asked him if he could help.

“He was bedridden. He cannot stand anymore and his body being eaten by the disease. He lacked not only medicines but food. I called up Dr. Canto and we brought the boy to the hospital,” he recalled.

The boy is recovering. “He can already stand,” Vasandani said.
Once, while the Inquirer was getting information at the hospital about two brothers – a teenager and a one year-old stabbed by unknown persons, he went to see them at their bedside. The victims belonged to a really poor family and Vasandani immediately gave the father some cash. He also called the police to help find the suspects.

This Indian national is a welcome figure in the government hospital every December as he gives gifts to all the confined patients. Last December, he gave gifts to some 300 patients confined at the hospital and 100 persons with disabilities from a facility of the Department of Social Works and Development.

“Just small but useful items like flashlights, picture frames, and clocks” he disclosed.

The reason
It was a son’s accident which brought him closer to “my Master” in 1992.

His second son, Vijay, was two years old then when he was hit by a jeepney. “I was drinking with my friends when the accident happened. “I should have been with him then, but instead I was in a drinking session. I prayed hard and promised God I will not drink again.”

Something, or Someone, touched his heart and opened his eyes to the reality that many people need help, he said. He started helping, but he did it secretly and quietly.

“But I realized that what I can do was not enough and that if other people knew about what I was doing, they will also be inspired to help others. So some three years ago, I started telling others about what I was doing and many people who have money started doing similar things,” Vasandani, who heads a Hindu religious group here, said.

His family has caught the “charity fever,” he claimed. His wife Kanchan would give a part of her salary from the family-owned corporation, for “my patients.” His children, too, save a part of their daily allowance and give the money to him. Vasandani and Kanchan have four teenaged children – Lavina, 19, Vijay, 14; Dipti, 15; and Pinky, 13.

His siblings, too, contribute to his charity work. Just recently, his sister Maya watched a local television news program which featured a child needing a medical procedure costing P15,000.

“She called me up and said she will give P10,000 to me for the child. So I only added P5,000 for the child to be able to undergo the medical procedure,” he said.

Her daughter Lavina, the only child born in India, also helps look for inspirational messages to be sent by her father to his “textmates.”

Vasandani does not really spend much for sending the messages because both Smart and Globe companies offer unlimited text messaging service. He said about 400 of his textmates are Filipinos and 200 are foreigners.

“It’s the same message which I send to everyone. And I send the message one by one, not ‘send to many’ so can feel I’m able to connect to everyone,” he said.

Vasandani, who arrived in the Philippines in 1981, said helping people never wears him out but gives him happiness and satisfaction which money can’t buy. “I also receive tremendous blessings like the family business’ grows, my family is intact and happy, I’m healthy and I have plenty of friends.”
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