Friday Musings

Last week was interesting, to say the least.

We were at a company offsite in Coorg. Besides work, we spent half a day at a school for mentally challenged. Though we could not provide a lot of hands-on help (as much as I would have wanted), but I personally got sensitised to a lot of things.

Firstly,I was surprised and stunned to see around 80 mentally challenged students on rolls in that school from a radius of 5-8 kms in Mercara (Madikere) town. Somehow I couldn't digest the fact that there could be so many of them in such a small radius with sparse population density. Secondly, I realised that we take so many things for granted. The gifts of Sight, sound, speech are truly 'gifts'.

There was one thing that I found ironic. You have the sight and hence you can see a round hole and a cylinder. You have reasonably good 'intelligence' (the rudimentary form of it atleast) and hence you know that you need to put the cylinder inside the round hole. You have grasping power and control over your hands to lift the cylinder. But after all this, you dont have hand -eye co ordination to put the cylinder in the hole properly. It is cruel. It means that you can do all the individual rudimentary steps (all the hard work), and just when you need to do the last task to be successful, you fail.

As I was talking to the people who run the school, I realised the magnitude of the effort they had been putting in for years. Imagine this, you work with a student for years and prepare him to go to a normal school, and then one fine day, he just walks off. No good byes, no thank you. And he is gone. It is a thankless job. I asked them, what keeps them going? What makes them come on a Monday morning to work. (Such a corporate question, damn! ) The reply was humbling.

'It isn't work', one of them told me. Its just what they wanted to do with their lives. WOW! I wish I could have an answer like that, sometime in my life. To one of them, the most memorable and inspiring moment was when after teaching a child to read the same page for 6 months (yeah 6 months!), one fine morning was Eureka - the kid could read and understand that page. That day convinced her to carry on doing what she was.

Someone asked me once, what is the significance of 'Lucky' (fyi, I sign off as lucky). I told her that I am a very lucky person. I've a great family (parents,bro,extended family), have had a comfortable life, amazing friends, good education, a decent job, good standard of living and have had the freedom to make my choices (right and wrong). Another important reason why I am lucky is because every once in a while, when I get cynical with people and/or things around me; I seem to meet someone (old or new) who bring to light a whole new perspective. It is a refreshing and learning experience. Be it the teachers at school in Mercara, an investment banker who has truckloads of enthu-for-life, an old friend who redefines persistence and dedication refusing to give up - now in a premier B school in US, a couple who along with their corporate life have been working to empower 'aam aadmi' using RTI act, my flatmate whose enthusiasm for cooking (amongst other things) is unparalleled.

There is just so much to learn and appreciate, if one is willing to.