The morning of 17th November 2018 found us in a worrisome scene , none of our kids had a uniform to wear and whatever they had wasn’t good enough to be worn in their interview ,we stood in a dilemma , either we send them compromised and saddened of their economic condition or figure a way out , even if we wanted they wouldn’t be able to wear our shirts as it will be ill fit , they wouldn’t be able to buy , either way , we tried pitching in though it wasn’t enough , we thought of giving up .
My team and I were a group of volunteers who visited the differently abled people and help them to try for walk-ins, what kept us going was their ambition, their unbreakable will, the way they looked at the world changed the way we did. Nothing could shake them yet today they felt pushed as their financials weren’t supporting their dream and it felt like we fell short on our promise to help them reach their well-deserved dream.
While we gave up , they didn’t , an old lady met us on the road while we were looking for something to help us get out of this problem , she said her husband while he was alive went to this factory to get himself shirts and trousers for his need and for her son , she said it was cheaper and easily affordable to a lot like us. She was the beacon of hope we thought we may not find and without further a do we went this small warehouse like showroom in a worn-out road on Chandapura Anekal Main road, we got good cloths and they came out happily as it got covered with the little money they had and our contribution. They successfully went for their interview and 3 of them got selected in an inventory model work space and a supermarket. Thanks to the Aditya Birla Group whose Factory outlet in a village road helps and caters to a lot of people with their lower than MRP cost and uncompromised quality to help level the field to help whip a dream into a reality.
A day which changed the way I saw everything , how much we are well off , there are people who crave for their family’s name , walking home from school a pair of eyes met mine with despair , a small boy probably of 8-10 years held the cold iron bars of an old unkept ashram for the handicapped with his bare hands meant to play in the sun , suffered in the hardships of a cruel lot of elderly men who were supposed to be the care takers of the organization , pushed the kids into tiring work of the day in false hope of good food , which they were denied . I met him at the gate with humility and with self-introspect , he said bhaiya can you help me get the stick I threw on the road , I saw him struggling earlier , the small hands tried reaching out to the road in an attempt to get hold of the stick , failed , well I gave him the thin log of wood he wanted so badly , I asked a question , does it mean anything to you ? In a broken voice he feared to answer yet he said I throw it to people on the road, why? he kept quiet.
I wanted to know his story well the next few lines got to me , he asked my name , I quickly replied Apurva Raj , he said his name is Raman , I said Raman what ? he said just Raman , he said that is my story , my father denied me his name , both of them and I was thrown in an orphanage and a differently abled ashram , I’m neither of those but that’s how it feels now , some here are truly handicapped and I well , time and luck dealt him a poor hand , hearing him telling me all that filled me with anger I marched inside and captured a lot of pictures of inhuman conditions that they were forced to live in and gave them exposure in my school and initially a lot of my school friends visited them helped them and tried to convey that they are wanted and they are as equal a part of this society as any of us , he completed by saying he used to throw his stick to his father who drives by every evening and ignores his own .
We are the ones who can build and bring down others and who have suffered at the hands of society we should try to uplift them, and help them feel wanted, loved and an integral part of our culture