Ahospital might be an everyday sight for many of us, but most of us never think too much about helping the inmates unless they're related to us. Perhaps even the thought does not occur to us. But it did to Binnibai Sonkar. For sixty years the lady sat outside the Dau Kalyan Singh district hospital in Raipur selling vegetables. And all the while, while struggling to eke out a living and educating her two children, the question was always at the back of her mind. Her deepest desire was to help harried patients and their relatives, especially the ones who came from a background similar to hers. But money always put a reality check on her benevolence.

Despite that, Binnibai was destined to take this industrial town by storm. One fine day, this vegetable vendor left several leading industrialists and businessmen feeling very small as she sold off her two-acre plot and donated her life's savings, amounting to Rs 10 lakh, to the district hospital to build a ward for the poor and those who come from far-flung villages. The calling of the spirit had been answered. Now, this...

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