While working with kids is her life, poems are her soul
As a kid, Maxine Silva had a recurring dream: she flew on a magic carpet that took her to exotic places. Her father, an officer in the Canadian Navy, taught her that change is as good as the rest. That made the family's constant migration easy. Even in her adulthood, uprooting herself constantly and finding acceptance in unfamiliar lands was never difficult. She married and raised her children in New Jersey, USA, and shifted to Bali (Indonesia) after her husband's death.
In 2012, a Facebook friendship with an Indian girl made Silva, a sexagenarian, visit a small village in Punjab. A week's stay and a pilgrimage to Beas changed her life. She sublet her Bali apartment and moved to Bengaluru, the only city .
“I have never experienced love with such intensity in my entire life. It is as if being here reconnected me with my roots,“ she said.
While in New Jersey, Silva worked as an x-ray technologist and ran a nonprofit that supported children with liver diseases. Armed with this experience, she started working with the Delhi-based Prayas Foundation, concentrating specifically on child-victims of human trafficking. She shuttles between Bengaluru and Delhi, and is the contact point for the nonprofit's operations in the IT city.“Children from many poorer states land up in Bengaluru and become victims of trafficking. Our efforts are to send them back to their homes and give them a better life,“ she said.
In 2014-15, Silva temporarily moved to Delhi, but her love for Bengaluru pulled her back. “My heart belongs here. Delhi is so fast-paced, where people are always on the go. Bengaluru offers me an easier way of life.“ The city also inspired her to reconnect with her childhood passion for painting and writing poetry . She held an exhibition of her work in Bengaluru a few years ago, and is now ready to publish a book. “It is called ` A Poet's Portrait' and is an autobiographical sketch of my life through my paintings and poetry ,“ she reveals.
Bengaluru has changed her food preferences, cultural values and way of life. “Be it friends that I made just by visiting the city's restaurants and cultural spaces, or the landlady of my Kammanahalli home, everyone here beams with positive energy . I feel connected to the people of the city , who always respond to my `Namaste' with a smile. That's what makes living here worthwhile.“
In 2012, a Facebook friendship with an Indian girl made Silva, a sexagenarian, visit a small village in Punjab. A week's stay and a pilgrimage to Beas changed her life. She sublet her Bali apartment and moved to Bengaluru, the only city .
“I have never experienced love with such intensity in my entire life. It is as if being here reconnected me with my roots,“ she said.
While in New Jersey, Silva worked as an x-ray technologist and ran a nonprofit that supported children with liver diseases. Armed with this experience, she started working with the Delhi-based Prayas Foundation, concentrating specifically on child-victims of human trafficking. She shuttles between Bengaluru and Delhi, and is the contact point for the nonprofit's operations in the IT city.“Children from many poorer states land up in Bengaluru and become victims of trafficking. Our efforts are to send them back to their homes and give them a better life,“ she said.
In 2014-15, Silva temporarily moved to Delhi, but her love for Bengaluru pulled her back. “My heart belongs here. Delhi is so fast-paced, where people are always on the go. Bengaluru offers me an easier way of life.“ The city also inspired her to reconnect with her childhood passion for painting and writing poetry . She held an exhibition of her work in Bengaluru a few years ago, and is now ready to publish a book. “It is called ` A Poet's Portrait' and is an autobiographical sketch of my life through my paintings and poetry ,“ she reveals.
Bengaluru has changed her food preferences, cultural values and way of life. “Be it friends that I made just by visiting the city's restaurants and cultural spaces, or the landlady of my Kammanahalli home, everyone here beams with positive energy . I feel connected to the people of the city , who always respond to my `Namaste' with a smile. That's what makes living here worthwhile.“
