Not all heroes wear capes; not even one heroine wears them. They sometimes wear black coats and gowns and champion causes that most would hesitate to take up. This ‘Wonder Woman’ is one such champion. She has given 36 years of her life in the US to the betterment of elderly South Asian immigrants, and this earned her the well-deserved Mother Teresa of Chicago award in 2010.
Canonizing her achievements, she surely is a living saint of modern times. Yet not an average saint, she is always ready to toil and fight for the good. Advocating her sageism is the International University of Vedic Well-ness that was established in Chicago in 2021. “There’s an innate need to go back to where we started or nature will put us all at square one. This university is one such effort to heal body, mind and soul. It is my lifelong dream to globally promote the precious wisdom of Vedic scriptures, the science of Upanishads, Ayurveda and Hindu philosophy. Fortunately, we have already found support from leaders of different industries.”
Firebrand Beginnings
Born into a family of landlords to Satyawati and Shambu Dayal Kulshrestha in Bharatpur – the city of bird sanctuary – on February 1, 1950, Santosh was always a winner, be it at sports or debates. She also took up rifles as part of her NCC tenure and has earned a C Certificate. “I missed all the family Diwali celebrations as I would be at the NCC camps.” As an NCC cadet, she also actively fundraised during the 1965 India-Pakistan war and has striking memories of the impact the war had on local communities. These memories, and the many social injustices that she firsthand witnessed during her growing up years, made a lasting impression and would later on become one of the major driving forces on her path to justice and selfless service.
Lady Justice Beckons
Santosh graduated with a Bachelor of Science (Biology) degree in 1969 from Rajasthan University in Jaipur and opted to study Law next. “Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and Abraham Lincoln, all lawyers, highly inspire me. They were not only crusaders of truth and justice but also dynamic leaders.” Like them, she too wanted to transform the world and bring about a positive change in the social landscape. She made education and compassion her two important weapons on this path.
She says, “Studying Law prepared me for all sorts of struggles in life. It also equipped me with skills of conversation and presentation that I have been able to put to use to drive change in both Indian and the US legal landscape”. At 22, this LLB-graduate was already a criminal defence lawyer in the Aligarh Session’s Court and acquired her LLM in 1974 from Aligarh Muslim University, Uttar Pradesh. While she won well-framed arguments in courtrooms, she also managed to influence and shape young legal minds as a Professor of Law at VS Law College, Aligarh, followed by another professorship at Jaipur University in Rajasthan. “I took many cases of domestic abuse and abandonment”. She also witnessed a lot of bride-burning and child-marriage cases in Rajasthan. “The plight of these young women was unimaginable. I had to do something.” And she did. Santosh has been instrumental in major legal system breakthroughs, including affecting amendments in Section 125 of India’s Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC). The Indian government recognized her strife for justice and upliftment of tribals in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. She was awarded by the CM of Madhya Pradesh for providing sanitary arrangements and toilets for rural women. She could see the pain in the eyes of the women, and decided to help.
Chicago gets its Angel
In 1985, Santosh migrated to the US with her husband Pramod Kumar, an engineer of repute in Chicago. He had studied computer engineering and mechanical engineering at IIT-Kharagpur and took a double masters in mechanical and industrial engineering in Chicago. She was naïve enough to believe everyone was prosperous and happy in the US. “It was utterly shocking to see that many immigrants from South Asian countries were suffering.”
She trained to be an immigration lawyer in the US and would often run into troubled senior citizens at the social security offices and witness their plight. Highly educated migrants were working labor jobs because their academic qualifications were not recognized, and the elders were being abandoned due to lack of support or then taken advantage of, more often than not, by their own families.
An evening changed the course of Santosh’s life. On her way home, she saw an elderly couple sitting outside on the curbside with threadbare clothes and slippers in the cold. They told her they had been waiting for their family to return so that they could have some tea and eat something as they weren’t confident of the right way of using the kitchen equipment. “I made them some tea but can’t forget that evening. It was a pivotal moment that set everything in motion.”
This was in 1992. It served as her epiphany that led to the South Asian immigrants and Homecare industry in Chicago gaining a guardian angel. She applied for Homecare Program from the State of Illinois and was contracted by the State in 1993. She added Public Benefits, Social Services, Nutrition Programs and Educational and Health Research shortly after that. In 2006, she started Adult Day Care Services to transport seniors who were neglected when their children went to work. She founded Universal Metro Asian Services (UMAS) and Metropolitan Asian Family Services (MAFS) in 1992. The organizations today have grown to 15 centers along with six adult day-care centers in the US to serve the immigrants in Chicagoland area. She has now added Metro Family Clinic, Metro Home Health Care and Metro Senior Living to deliver high-quality health services. MAFS provides services to immigrants from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Eastern Europe.
The biggest challenge came during the COVID-19 pandemic. Santosh and her team, whom she is immensely grateful for, kept going during the pandemic as well. They ensured that senior citizens continued to get the rightful care and attention. “Elderly have a different set of needs – they are like an experienced child. It was difficult as we could not meet them in person yet had to ensure that their needs were met. We had online meetings to introduce home healthcare, provide food and create a sense of security. Our aim was to keep our elders occupied and depression and anxiety at bay.” She is particularly appreciative of the role technology has played in bringing the world together and organized during the pandemic.The President of Bharat Seva Ashram of North America (BSANA), she is, for the past 30 years, working tirelessly to impart Indian moral values and Vedic studies to Indian-origin kids in the US.
Where There is a Will…
Santosh was able to accomplish all this mostly because of her willpower and along the way she had the unwavering support of her husband and two sons, Prashant, a computer engineer, and Sagar, an aerospace industrial engineer with Honeywell Aerospace, Phoenix.
She lost Pramod, her husband of 31 years, in 2016 to a severe cardiac arrest. As traumatizing as it was, she put up a brave front and marched on with her mission to serve others. With a glimmer in her eyes and a lump in her throat, she shares about him. “It was a tough phase – I had never seen him ill, not even with fever. He’d always be working, weekends included. A very disciplined and organized man, Pramod was my rock. It has been a huge irreparable loss. Yet, my concerns were more for my two children who were very close to their father. When I used to travel often to India to see my ailing mother, the children were raised by him.”
Sons of such inspirational parents, Prashant and Sagar did her proud by turning their father’s legacy into their own. Sagar gave up his high-paying job to join her and look after his father’s engineering business. “Their support has given me the boost I needed. I have always fought for others, but those were some days I needed some strength myself – though I don’t deny that fighting for justice fills you with an innate amount of inner strength.”
Santosh has given a new meaning to community service. The many accolades and distinctions, including the most recent inclusion in America’s Registry of Outstanding Professionals, do not do justice to the powerhouse of determination and altruism that Santosh Kumar is. Chicago and the world are extremely lucky to have ‘Wonder Woman’ Santosh in their corner.