Deepa Malik, India’s paraplegic swimmer champion
I don’t believe there exist ‘disabled people’ on earth. My experience and understanding have taught me that there are only ‘differently abled’ people on earth who have their own ways of doing things.
A person may not have hands yet, he learns to do everything by himself. Someone may have only one leg, but he either finds a vulcanized leg to pair up or learns things the hard way. But there is one common thing about this broad genre of people. They all understand and have something in common which we may never even get close to. They understand the importance of loss and more importantly, they learn how to make this loss their biggest strength.
Taking a very recent example of Arunima Sinha; she was thrown out of a moving train and got both her legs cut. She was crippled for life but rose to the occasion and has scaled 6 highest peaks of the world. She is not aiming for the highest peak in Antarctica. She has set the bar higher than most of the ‘normal’ people would imagine. The loss and pain she suffered have made her the toughest mountain climber there ever was.
The other very interesting aspect of the differently abled is that they achieve a heightened sense of their working senses or body parts. Some call it the 6th sense. Some try and explore the scientific explanations behind these changes. But the way I understand this is that they don’t think about what not working. Instead, they focus their energies on how they can make everything else work. Blind women are some the best listeners. They trust in themselves more than an average person can even dream of. Deaf and dumb are the most caring and expressive. A man with paralysed lower body develops immense upper body strength capable of carrying multiple people. And being a dancer, I can assure you that differently abled people understand music and dance better than everyone else.
Be it some restaurants hiring only the differently abled, “Planet Abled” starting travel services or our PM calling them “Divyang” instead of “Viklang”, today people are making efforts to understand that differently abled are just unique members of our family. In our monotonous lives, we are stuck in the cobwebs of jobs, our needs and responsibilities. We fail to do anything that we were once passionate about. But our differently abled friends decide on something and then pursue it with full dedication and passion. They make sure they raise the bar and become the strongest versions of themselves.
I grew up in a middle-class family and learnt things the hard way. I took risks, failed, got back up and failed again. I still fail quite a few times. But my daily inspiration and moral boost to never lose hope is my grandmother. I have never seen her grab a glass of water in one go because of extremely poor eyesight. She suffers from incurable corneal detachment. But this never came in her way of supporting the family in the best possible manner. As a child, I often tried closing my eyes and walking around the house imitating my grandmother. 30 seconds of blindness used to send shivers down my spine. Today, I get goosebumps at the thought of it. On the other hand is my grandmother who not only takes care of herself but everyone in the family. She is more alert and energetic throughout the day than anyone else in the family. Her sense of hearing is the greatest I have ever come across.
If you try and experience the life of differently abled without being one, you might end up losing sight of what is real because of the shock and impact. It’s only through loss that one can understand the importance of what he has. Differently abled have such interesting and passionate lives that most of us only dream of living. They are truly special and beyond compare.
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