I was walking up a hill when a grenade wounded my friends and me," recalls Avdyl Berisha, father of three small children and a resident of Kosovo in the Balkans.
"I lost several fingers on both hands and some toes too. Later, I was imprisoned, tortured, and beaten, and when I contracted gangrene, my tormentors immersed me in cold water and cold mud, to enhance it!"
Not surprising, then, that Berisha and 80 per cent of Kosovo's population suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, according to the Harvard Medical Group.
"I asked them a simple question: instead of thinking, 'What about me', ask, 'How can I be useful to others'," says Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, of the Art of Living Foundation.
The answers to the questions he asked, and the workshops his volunteers conducted, have begun to bring peace to victims of war and terrorist attacks in Israel, the Balkans, Iraq, Afghanistan, the United States, Pakistan and, most recently, Sudan. In some places, they reach out to aggressors too, and change their mindset.
Now, his centre in Bangalore regularly draws men and women from countries like Iraq, Israel, Pakistan and the US, belonging to diverse religions and cultures.
Reportage: M D Riti
Photograph: INDRANIL MUKHERJEE/AFP/Getty Images
Also See: Amma in New York