Ganga Prem Hospice, Rishikesh

30/10/2025

Farewell to a colleague.
Ganga Prem Hospice's nursing and nursing assistants team gather in the evening today to wish nurse Maya Chand well, who is leaving to be with her family back home.

27/10/2025

We had a memorable two days of kirtan and chanting in Rishikesh with Krishna Das , Nina Rao, and Arjun Bruggeman, on October 25 & 26. Thank you for sea of support and love shown to Ganga Prem Hospice.
A big thank you also to Krishna Das whose generosity and kindness we cannot fully express in words. 💛

20/10/2025

What is a Diwali evening like, at a hospice, where there isn't a riot of noise and festivity, but a gentle celebration with lights, sweets and togetherness.

At Ganga Prem Hospice tonight, there were mustard oil lamps lit all over. Those patients who were well enough came down to the Sukhdayini Ma Ganga temple courtyard to celebrate and sit around, surrounded by their caregivers and staff. A little boy who speaks little and does not smile too often because of his sickness, was happy lighting sparklers. Draped in a shawl, he looks like a little adult. His older sister is in her late teens and enjoys firecrackers that light up. From the courtyard, you can hear somebody chanting Ram, Ram. It is the wife of a patient who is in precarious health and unconscious. She stops to attend to a phone call from home. Her family can't be there but they are worried for her and her husband.
Elsewhere on the patients floor, GPH nurses keep their vigil, going from room to room, checking especially on the patients who either do not have a caregiver, or their family member has joined the Diwali celebration downstairs. An elderly patient who is nearly eighty, is alone tonight, as her family has gone home for Diwali and are expected back in a few hours. When the GPH nurse tenderly asks her if she is okay, the ever-humble mataji even in her drowsiness, joins her palms to say thank you. The nurse stops her and holds her hands in hers. Two rooms down, there is another patient, nearly thirty years younger, but critically ill and on oxygen support. The nurse checks on her syringe driver meds and covers her with a blanket. She promptly uncovers herself, maybe feeling a little warm.

There is going to be a shift change half an hour later, with the evening staff being replaced by the night duty nurses and nursing assistants. The patients who were downstairs are being wheeled back upstairs. The kitchen team is preparing an early dinner as they have to go home to their children celebrating Diwali. The security guard is vigilant as always. The GPH doctor has retired to his room after checking on his patients and joining everybody in the Diwali celebration.

And so as the festival night carries on in the rest of the world, there is one place that remains an oasis for those who are between life and death. Ever serving, ever caring.
It is a hospice.

19/10/2025

A very special choti Diwali at Ganga Prem Hospice tonight!

19/10/2025

It's a sunny October morning and the perfect time to bathe in some Vitamin D at Ganga Prem Hospice!

18/10/2025

Excited Diwali time diya painting with our patients and caregivers, followed by a meditation session for the staff, and then the calming evening Diwali lights at Ganga Prem Hospice.

A lot happens in a hospice in a day!

17/10/2025

A meditation-cum-relaxation session for caregivers and family members of Ganga Prem Hospice patients today, led by our volunteer Natasha Agrawal. 🪷🪷

16/10/2025

Breakfast out in the sun with a blanket as winter starts to make its presence felt cautiously in the early mornings.

Nursing assistant Sarita Rawat serves a patient with care at Ganga Prem Hospice.

14/10/2025

A pink ixora flower and a pink rose adorn the Narmadeshwar Shivling at the Sukhdayini Ma Ganga temple at Ganga Prem Hospice today.

12/10/2025

It is Diwali time and the Ganga Prem Hospice Sukhdayini Ma Ganga temple is all shimmering in Diwali lights, giving everybody solace and peace ❤

08/10/2025

As the World Hospice & Palliative Care Day approaches, we want to know what you think of palliative care delivery in India.

Please take a moment and vote here.

Is there universal access to palliative care in India?