Story by: Ekta Mahila Samiti | Mahila Mandal Wing | Project Kakri | NCL.
Vasudha Kalyani Mandbuddi Vidyalaya is fully residential school for differently abled children. We thought of contributing towards running expenses by offering some grocery and items of daily needs. Our list included flour, rice, pulses, salt, refined oil, spices, sugar, tea, biscuits, soaps, toothbrush, hair oil, dishwasher and other daily need items; all in all a provision to last for couple of months.
It was a sunny day. We started for this school situated 15 kms away from Kakri. There was some construction work going along the way and it was taking longer than usual. As our car stopped at the gate of the school, few children from a nearby mainstream primary school also gathered there.
We entered the premises.
Suddenly, time got distressed..
Sadness started to loom large..
That heart wrenching sight of wheel chairs..
That queue of children..
That thought of insufficiency in helping them..
Those thoughts flooding with sorrow..
Just when thoughts were to engulf us completely, we met Pawan.
And then..
thoughts reshaped..
Meet Pawan (boy in blue and white checkered shirt) .
We struck conversation with him and tried to know about his problems. But he surprised us. While talking about himself, he summed his problems in a sentence and then went ahead to talk endlessly about ambitions in life. Ambitions of becoming a singer. He told us about his passion for singing. He also told us about various events where he has performed and got appreciated for his voice.
While he talked, the glint in his eyes made everyone feel a new gush of life.
And then he said, “Madam ji, my abilities are stronger than my disabilities.”
In that moment, he was infinite…
and we..
we were speechless…
…recalling these words by Robert M.Hensel –
There is no greater disability in society, than the inability to see a person as more.
For rest, we will let pictures do all the talking…
