Category: Colours of Life

Inclusion

We all talk about inclusion, accessibility and equal opportunities to all but does it really exist in the so called corporate world?

Does our corporate world understand the needs of a differently abled person and support them in the way they should?

Does it exist in other areas of our life?

There are a few companies that conduct job fairs for people with different physical and intellectual problems. However there is still a large section out there unaware, unreached, uneducated.

It’s really nice to see people coming in large number and creating awareness on a certain day; World Cerebral Palsi day, World Autism day, etc…

Way back in 2018, World CP day, when I was felicitated with the Young Achievers Award by Adapt I was on cloud9. However such events should be conducted more often.

I remember a few years back when I went on a trip to Mumbai Darshan, all excited. I was disappointed when the Tourist Guide restricted me of getting off the bus at the first destination just because I may not be able to come back on time. This happened for the next 4 destinations. I finally raised my voice and said I didn’t pay you just to sit in the bus and people around supported, that was when the Guide apologized and let me visit the remaining destinations. We still need to reach out these areas for more accessibility and inclusion.

There are quite a few places where  they have palanquins to carry people with motion disability to their desired destination. One such place was ‘Elephanta Caves’ . Having the option to be carried I opted to climb up myself as I wanted to enjoy and explore every place there. Though I couldn’t walk for 2 days after that 😆 The palanquin is a nice facility for people with motion disability.  People are willing to extend support, all we need is to raise our concerns / voices wherever possible.

Due to these facilities I visited the Mysore Palace with a lot more ease and comfort

Companies are willing to hire differently able people but are they really aware about the problems people face after hiring. Many a times companies just don’t care. Owners are not aware of the politics being played by people to achieve their own agendas. And amongst this power game the sincere people suffer the most. People around are so clouded with their ego that they just don’t acknowledge that a person  with disability too can perform. It tales alot for a differently abled person to perform even simple tasks but the so called normal people just don’t understand. They do everything possible to make us feel incapable and eventually having us resign. Once we resign, they are very happy as if they have won a war.

Every person suffering from Cerebral Palsi come with a different set of physical and intellectual problems.

Like in my case, it’s difficult for me to keep up with speed and pace of my colleagues. I was lucky my first employer allowed me to work on my own system to make me more comfortable. I slowly picked up speed and also got over the vision issue by increasing the font size of my screen. Even after years of experience I still find it difficult to adjust in a new work environment. All we need here is patience and time.

I don’t make new friends easily. I only talk to a few known people around me. As a recruiter it was a real challenge for me interacting with new people day in day out. I still stammer at times but I manage interacting as much as needed professionally. Personally I still stay silent when it comes to interacting with a new person😁

I never faced any challenge getting into a normal school or college. For me I had ‘Inclusion’ , ‘Acessibity’ and ‘Equal Opportunities’ almost everywhere I stepped.

Ofcourse there were struggles but I had strong support everywhere I.e. family, friends and mentors. I feel like I was born with a silver spoon 😎.

This was my story but there are many out there still struggling for recognition. We need to reachout to more such people

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#CPMakeYourMark

Cerebral Palsy (CP) – An unseparable part of one’s life!

As a kid when I looked at other kids running, jumping, playing I used to think one day a Fairy will come and miraculously heal my legs but as I grew older I learnt about CP, that there was no cure to it. There is no ‘fight against CP’ in my dictionary. I have accepted CP as a part of my life. CP has affected me a lot physically but at the same time CP has made me strong and self motivated.

There are many out there who are not aware or have never even heard about CP, including me. It was only when I was diagnosed with CP I learnt about it. That’s when I decided to pursue psychology as my major subjects in my final year. Along with CP I learnt about so many other physical and mental disorders.

I suffer from CP but I have come a long way from being nothing to being a successful entreprenuer today. I had many rejections and failures but nothing stopped me. There were people willing to give me a chance and I took all the little chances and opportunities to move ahead.

Covid-19  has been difficult for me when it came to traveling. I have been in my house for months and always wanting to go outdoors like before. This again came with a blessing in disguise. I got the time to read my favourite Ruskin Bond books. I got time to blog again. I developed interest in cooking and especially baking.

Whether be it work or competition, I never hesitate to take it up.

Apart from running my own recruitment consultancy I have been part of many events

I hosted a fancy dress competition held in a special school on world crebral palsy day in 2017

In 2018, I participated in a special marathon to create awareness for CP

Later in 2018 itself I received an Adapt Achievement Award from the Adapt foundation, for my achievements.

In 2019, I have been part of a special Garba event held for CP kids.

Now in 2020, for the occasion of World CP Day on 6th October I am running a campaign for the awareness of CP

#GoGreen4CP

https://letsroar.in/campaign/gogreen4cp/

To conclude I’d say family plays a vital role in shaping the life of people with special needs. Family’s acceptance gives the confidence to face the world and stand strong in all situations.

Alumni 2016

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24th July 2016 – this was the day I waited for the most. And why shouldn’t I ? After all it was our alumni day. The department had organized everything so well. Right from welcoming us to seeing us off 🙂

As soon as I got out of the elevator I got a warm welcome from Vinay Sir, who was all set to give me a warm hug 🙂 He walked us to the auditoriam. I never knew a single person there except for my best friend Brinda and Vidya Ma’am. Though people around were strangers, the place made me feel at home. The programme was arranged in room no. 35, the same class where I started my degree college journey. I remembered the 1st day 1st lecture and I was late as usual 🙂 it was Vidya Ma’am’s lecture. 2nd lecture was Dongare Sir’s lecture, I can never forget that lecture because my phone rang in between the lecture and Sir thought I was playing a prank on him so he confiscated my phone. Actually it was no prank my brother had messaged me to say eat something from the canteen as I had forgotten my tiffen at home. My mistake was just that I forgot to put my phone on silent. I was so timid by nature that I couldn’t even imagine of playing pranks on anyone and especially on professors ? Hehe God save me 🙂

About Vidya Ma’am I must say she’s a wonderful lady. She’s calm and patient. She can handle any situation with calmness. Anyone who sees her will forget all his stress. You get so much of positive vibes from her. She has a calm look with a sweet smile; truly BEAUTIFUL and GORGEOUS. 🙂

Anyways coming back to the alumni, it was selfie time. Brinda and I took so many selfies together. About Brinda I don’t know what all to say because if I start writing about us the blog will never end. 🙂 She’s my best of best bestest friend. I know bestest is no word but our friendship too is unique. Right from 11th std. to 15th std. we were in the same class, same bench, we even bunked lectures together. I remember one of the professors saying “puri class ek taraf aur ye dono ladki log ek taraf”. We even went to the washroom together hehe. After college also we used to spend hours chatting on the phone and everyone wondered what we had so much to talk about after spending the whole day together in college. Well I am not going to share what we had to talk about 🙂 Before every exam we spent half a day discussing on what to study. We have maintained our friendship even now 🙂
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Well coming back to the alumni, the ceremony started with a short speech by our Principal Ma’am Ancy Jose. Later as every batch came forward to introduce themselves ; it was really amazing to see Vinay Sir remember so many incidents about each one of us.

Vinay Sir is a marvellous human being. He really makes every lecture lively. He is never limited to that boring classroom teachings and books. There is so many things beyond studies we learnt from him. Relationships, Life, Friendship etc etc.. he is someone with whom you can talk anything even the most filthiest stuffs 🙂

Only five people from our batch had attended the ceremony. Meghna, Nikita, Suchita, and of course Brinda and me. 🙂
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When Upasana enacted Vinay Sir, I remembered Jyoti enacting him during our free time to entertain us. 🙂

Our juniors did a wonderful job. Hitanshi Sharma and Sheela Mehta hosted the entire evernt for us. And must say they both were very entertaining. Hitanshi performed a solo dance for us. Prachi Salunke, Unma Jagodia and Kajal Tiwari sang a lovely group song for us. On demand Vaidehi sang a solo song for us. She really has a gifted voice. We can’t thank these people enough. They put life into the whole event. God bless all of them 🙂
It was nice to see some of the ex students with their kids 🙂

Before leaving once I went to the dept. Room no. 41 🙂 As soon as I entered the room so many memories came running. It was like living life in a flashback mode. I remembered all the masti and dramas we did 🙂 This alumni really got back the best years of my life.

To conclude I just have one thing to say “NK COLLEGE PSYCHOLOGY DEPARTMENT ROCKS” 🙂 🙂 🙂

Happy Hours :)

Does happy hours exist ? Is there a particular hour in the whole day when you think you will be only happy?

Yes…. Happy Hours exist. All it needs is to understand your definition of happiness. We all have our own definition of happiness. Whatever is your definition of happiness, ultimately that becomes your #HappyHour.

Happiness for me is Life. Life is the longest happy hour. There is nothing greater than life. When a life comes into this world, we celebrate; we celebrate that day every year as birthdays. When someone dies we moan. Everything else is because of Life. Have you ever thought, what would you achieve or lose if you were not alive ? So for me happiness is Life; #myhappyhour.

It’s not like I have a royal life that’s why I am talking great about life, it’s just that I value life. No matter whatever you achieve in life, you will not really be happy unless and until you value and understand how blessed you are by being alive.

My life is simple but beautiful. You may even call it routine yet it’s lovely. Every morning I wake up and excitedly think of what all I have to do at work. My office is like my second home for me. Once I reach office I totally belong only to my work. It’s just me and my work. I am never in a hurry to leave from office so my Mumma calls me everyday at 6.00 pm to remind me that I need to come home 🙂 my brother even gave me a table clock so that I see the time and leave from office on time. Anyways that was about my office, when I come back home my kids wait for me in the compound and every single day give me a warm welcome. When I see their smiling faces I just forget about work stress if any. I have not given birth to them still they are my kids. As soon as I reach home they tell me what they did in school. If they win a prize they show it to me first. More than their own parents they share all their secrets with me. Sometimes even I get involved in their pranks and it’s fun. If they do something wrong I scold them and they very positively accept their mistakes. I am like a role model for them, whatever I do/say is always right according to them. They look up to me for everything. On weekends I play with them and they bring back my childhood memories. Every evening we decide on which colour clothes should be worn and we all wear the same 🙂 ; since blue is my favourite colour you will find them wearing blue on the days we are not able to meet and decide the colour. We celebrate every festival together. On my birthdays more than me they are excited. They make cards and make my day special.

Weekends are family days. Mumma gossips about all the evil aunties 🙂 ; those silly fights and arguments with my brother. Sometimes my brother takes me to events with him and we enjoy a lot together. Some weekends I go out with the kids and friends and we have a blast.

I’ve had my share of struggle in terms of health and career. I am sure this is not all; there would be more struggles in future but I am prepared for it. Nothing really would stop me from loving my life. I am blessed with a lovely family, caring friends, sweet kids and of course one khadus Gabbar Boss 🙂

So that’s My Life My Happy Hour 🙂

Madeofgreat

We come across so many different people in our lives. Some we like, some we love, some we hate; some stay in our lives for a e long time or forever, some stay in our lives for a short period of time. We wish some people to be with us always but unfortunately due to some reasons they don’t be with us. Such people always live in our hearts. We at times hate the sight of some people yet we need to deal with them. These all are #coloursoflife

That was about our routine life. In our busy life we at times come across some incidents/people which/who leave behind an unforgettable mark on our lives.

Recently I’ve met one such person at #BNLF and his name is Raghava. Raghava is truly #madeofgreat. I met him just once n was with him only for few hours. We might never meet again but he’s definitely left behind an unforgettable impression. This man is blind and it is really amazing the way he lives his life. He is full of life. I don’t know much about him but whatever little I know has made me respect him. ‘Respect’ is a small word for him. There are not enough words in the dictionary to describe him.

He was not born blind he lost his eyesight later, don’t know when exactly. If a person is blind from birth it really doesn’t affect him much mentally, but when a person goes blind all of a sudden it takes a lot of courage to accept and live a normal life again. Raghava has made that effort and stood up strong against his own disability.

At the lunch table I told him I am a recruiter and he happily said he was a head hunter but never found head nor hunting 🙂 He had no regrets for his failure instead he laughed over it. We all should learn to be like him

He being a blind, fights for the  rights of all handicp people. Hats off. Now that’s just marvellous. He travelled from Hyderabad to Mumbai alone just to  attend BNLF. I don’t know what really motivates him but he is a true inspiration for all of us.

At the time of departure he told me that I am a strong lady 🙂 I believe he is stronger than me. That’s why I call him MADEOFGREAT  🙂

Thought for the day

No matter how big mistake you have made it is always better to confess the truth to your loved ones. If the person is matured enough, he/she will appreciate the effort you took to speak the truth because not everyone have the guts to confess the truth. And even if the person doesn’t forgive you, at least you feel good from within after speaking the truth.

Finally if the person really cares for you then sooner or later he/she will understand. All you need is to give them time. Time has the power to heal everything.