M C Pankaja in Bengaluru counsels those suffering from mental distress

 
The modest premises on Bull Temple Road in Bengaluru reverberates with calls of Pankajakka as clients, trainee counsellors, interns and colleagues seek her out. With her open, mirthful laughter, that is matched by inexhaustible energy, diminutive octogenarian M C Pankaja is the dynamo that powers Prasanna Counselling Centre, co-founded in 1980 with the late Ajith Kumar. A teacher for 31 years, Pankaja was a suicide prevention volunteer for 15 years at Victoria Hospital, when Kumar approached her with the proposal to set up a counselling centre, a novel concept in the city then. “The experience I gained by tackling problems within my family urged me to help people facing mental and emotional problems,” says Pankaja, who lost her parents within months of each other when she was just 12, and assumed responsibility for her family of 12 siblings, although she was the second last among them. Today, with a team of about 50 doctors, psychiatrists, psychologists and trained counsellors, Pankaja provides free counselling to those facing suicidal, marital, behavioural, alcoholic and other problems. To date, she has helped over 13,000 clients and trained over 2,000 counsellors. “She instils a quiet confidence in her clients,” says Sitalakshmi, who was cancer-stricken three years ago and has trained as a counsellor under Pankaja. “Pankajakka’s counselling helped me cope with the disease. Like her, I want to help others.” A spinal degeneration that left her hunched has neither deterred the 83 year-old, nor dimmed her passion. Come rain or shine, ever-smiling, she is at the centre, on the lookout for those who need her help.

—Chitra Ramaswamy

Photo: J Ramaswamy
Featured in Harmony — Celebrate Age Magazine
September 2017