For the past few years, Swarnalata Agarwal, a senior citizen, had moved from one nursing home to another.
Originally from Rajasthan, India, she was looking for a place to spend the last phase of her life, [a place] not only to be taken care of by nurses, but also to get the feeling and touch of an Indian atmosphere.
“I used to eat nothing except for bread, butter, and milk, as I did not like American food. Further, I used to sleep the whole day in my room, as I had difficulty in communicating in English with other residents of the rehabilitation center,” said Swarnalata, who has a Ph.D. in Hindi and, in 1989, became a sannyasin [someone who rejects the pleasures of the worldly life in order to step along the spiritual path], adopting the saffron robe.
The past couple of months have been satisfying for her. “I am happy now,” she says. She has finally found a place where she can eat vegetarian Indian food of her choice, and speak in her mother tongue, Hindi, with other residents of the rehabilitation center and even with the nurses, staff and doctors.
“This is my final destination. I am not going to move away. I am so happy here that I do not even feel the need of my children, which was not the case with the previous rehabilitation centers,” Swarnalata said, sitting on her bed in her third floor room of the Alameda Center for Rehabilitation and Care at Perth Amboy, New Jersey.
Swarnalata is not the only one to feel this way about the Alameda Center, which is run by Michael Neiman.
Jaganath Trivedi, at 102 years of age – the most senior inmate of the center – who has lived here for the past four or five months, Jyotinder and Mudula Parikh, who joined the 32 permanent residents a few days ago, share the same feeling.
Even though the place might not be at par with the best rehab centers in the Tri-State area, in terms of infrastructure and facilities, Trivedi said, “I enjoy living here, because it feels like a home away from home.”
“Where else can I get typical Indian vegetarian food? Where else can I listen to bhajan, watch Aastha (the Indian spiritual channel) or Ramayana and Mahabha-rata ?” asked Nand Bala Patel, a 78-year-old resident. Originally from Ahmedabad, Patel has lived at the center since it opened in July.
“This is our objective, to create a place where people can feel at home,” Neimen said, adding that he is trying to introduce a new concept of ethnic rehabilitation centers in the region.
An Indian rehabilitation center is the latest addition to his list of Russian, Korean, Latino and Spanish, all of which have been successful. The Indian rehab center, considered to be the only one if its kind as a facility catering to the Indian-American community in North America, already has a waiting list of more than 100.
“People are coming here from all over the United States. We cannot help much as we have a limited capacity,” said Mukund Thakar, who is in charge of the center. “We are here to do whatever we can to help Indian-American senior citizens. Being able to speak in their own language with staff and other residents makes them feel welcome and comfortable.”
The center, he said, offers Indian doctors and staff, religious services, cultural activities, food, décor, atmosphere and entertainment, including Indian music, television channels, and newspapers.
“Our residents maintain a connection with their former lifestyle and culture,” Thakar said.
With a majority of the inmates being Gujarati, officials have ensured that a sizeable number of the staff speaks Gujarati. “At this stage of life, every little thing matters,” he said.
According to Neiman, Thakar has been one of the motivating factors in opening the center.
“There were reasons for it,” observed Thakar, who worked in Ahmedabad’s slums for nearly two decades before coming to the United States. “During my visit to other rehabilitation centers, I found Indians were depressed because they could not mingle with the other residents easily because of cultural differences, language problems and an absence of food. We tried to provide a solution to the problem.”
