Success & ABILITY
India’s Cross-disability Magazine
July - September 2011
Rs. 30
DANIEL KISH
THE MAN WHO TAUGHT HUMSELF TO SEE
INVITING NOMINATIONS
for the
10TH CAVINKARE ABILITY AWARDS
2011-2012
Honouring Achievers with Disability
www.abilityfoundation.org/www.cavinkare.com
or call : 91 44 2445 2400
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GRUNDFOS AD
Editor: Jayshree RaveendranDeputy Editor: Janaki Pillai
Associate Editors: Seena Raveendran, Shashwathi Sandeep
Assistant Editor: Padmini Natarajan
Senior Designer: RG Kishore Kumar
Cover Credits: Ogilvy & Mather
Illustration: Vikram Nandwani
Prabhakar
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Rights and Permissions: No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of Ability Foundation. Ability Foundation reserves the right to make any changes or corrections without changing the meaning, to submitted articles, as it sees fit and in order to uphold the standard of the magazine. The views expressed are, however, solely those of the authors. / Contents
6 Rhyme & Rhythm Shelley Barry shares her thoughts on feminism and disability in verse.
9 Inspiration Major General Razdan: an epitome of courage and commitment, writes Pratima Sundararajan.
13 Cover Feature All about an amazing guy called Daniel Kish.
31 Caring Concern Pavithra Giri on what makes Vindhya E Infomedia tick, as an equal opportunity employer.
34 Products Shashwathi Sandeep writes on the Sevaman Trust which makes artificial limbs using a computerised process.
37 Recount K R Rajendra, on how disability is dealt with in the wake of disasters.
41 Awareness Kiran Manral on snoring.
44 Focus Debjani Talapatra gives us a peek into phobias and how we can counter them.
47 Spotlight Japan's efficient response to crisis and tragedy: a lesson for humanity, writes Rajesh Sabari.
51 Family Ties A humorous take by Parul Sharma on new-age fathers.
54 Short Story A man's tale about love, loss and life by Paresh Palicha.
56 Insight Ann Gonsalvez gives us an A to Z guide on Multiple Sclerosis.
58 Blog Marc who calls himself a Wheelchair Kamikaze, blogs on the greener side of being a wheelchair user.
60 Book Review It's about Ability, a book that attempts to sensitise young readers on the need for a more inclusive world.
62 Nostalgia Geeta Doctor pays tribute to Helen Keller.
64 Pondering A positive attitude can change the way the world looks at you, says Angshu Jajodia.
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FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK
Friends, Getting to know people like Daniel Kish and Major General Razdan has been, for me, like gaining a whole new dimension to life itself. Living as we do in these cynical times, Gen Sunil Kumar Razdan and Daniel Kish come as more than, just a breath of fresh air.
How does one describe Gen. Razdan – an officer and a gentleman and India's first Major General serving the country from a wheel chair? Superman?
How does one describe Daniel Kish… a blind man who taught himself to see? Batman?
No… neither Gen. Razdan nor Daniel Kish is a flying superhero. Their common traits are optimism, confidence in themselves, faith in humanity and their enthusiasm and courage to take on Life's hurdles.
When I first met General Razdan (he was Guest of Honour at our 2010 CavinKare Ability Awards), the words of Rudyard Kipling's unforgettable poem “IF” that I'd read in school, immediately flashed in my head… particularly the lines…
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too…
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same…
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on"…
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run –
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!
As for Daniel Kish… I'm at a loss for words to describe my new found friend… living life to the hilt… refusing to allow his blindness to hold him back from doing anything that he chooses to do on par with any sighted person. Now… where have I read those lines: “If you want to really succeed, form the habit of doing things that failures don't like to do”; and then again: “Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice; it is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.” Daniel Kish has not just done this. He has shown others the path, as well.
Read on, my friends. Here's another packed issue of “Success & ABILITY” to be informed, interested and inspired by.
Jayshree Raveendran
RHYME & RHYTHM
In My Words
Shelley Barry, an activist and filmmaker from South Africa gives us five powerful verses on disability, feminism and freedom.
Call to Art
If we want to be part of this story, we have to write our own chapters
We have to paint our revolution across blank spaces
We have to dance and stomp upon our space on the land and make it sacred
We have to cross a stage and speak from the centre, not from the side, not from the back
We have to capture our images and rid ourselves of the tinshaking-streetsitting-pityme-pictures
We have to embroider our history on colored cloth and wave flags of freedom
We have to name this apartheid, crush it with our art, prise open a new way, embracing the space we carve, the place we sculpt
Bound?
What's this talk about “wheelchair-bound?”
These wheels are not my prison! I am a queen! This is my chariot.
I'm not STUCK in this chair,
Watch me dance, whistle, stomp,
Watch me spin, flip backwards, toss out
I'm not sleeping in this chair, not bathing in this chair, not making love in this chair.
Well..sometimes.
What's this talk about wheelchair-bound?
I sit on the peak of a mountain I carry inside, I store music in the click of my fingers- see it spill out?
So, from where I sit, perhaps it's you bound to a language
I just don't fit
Shout Out!
I want to say to that woman out there on the crutches, eyes hung down with shame
Woman, be up to living
I want to say to that woman who speaks with her hands, who knows most people don't care to understand, to that woman who can't see through her eyes but hear the sniggers,
Feels the “ag shame” smile- woman, be up to living
I want to say to that woman dying, diseased and deserted, to that woman in a wheelchair in alien landscapes, to that woman with tormented or different mind- woman, be up to living
I want to say to those who point and laugh, who cluck their tongues with pity, who patronize their sisters with disabilities-
Women, be up to living!
RHYME & RHYTHM
Voice/over
I have to speak you see, speak because I almost can't, speak because so many haven't
Speak n whatever language I know and not fear walking on my own fire
Speak I must because I was almost silenced
I speak simply because I AM HERE
When I'm gone, I'm leaving words and tracks behind
I have a whole in my throat, in this hole fits a tiny tube that makes me breath, makes me speak
When I remove it, I have no voice, no language, speaking is not an option. Then again, neither is silence.
And so I speak about that day when they gave me three hours to live and told my people to come say Goodbye
I couldn't talk then, only watch the spirit of my Mama hovering above my bed
I knew my lover was still alive, bullet flew right through me, got stuck inside her
In so way linking us together for always because we both still feel that bullet, we can speak about it now, about the holes in our body, about the holes in our heart
Too many of us have bullet wounds and hidden scars and words that fall down the valve in out throats
Still, I have learnt to celebrate this hole, the breath and speech it gives is my life force
So, I decorate it with jewellery, different hand made beads and trinkets because scars should also be crowned
Even if they are not neat or pretty or odd to look at sometimes, scars should also be crowned
They deserve to be carried onwards and miles, they deserve to be part of our stories
Sometimes our stories fall upon a place that heals
I have to speak you see, speak because I almost can't, speak because so many haven't
Speak in whatever language I know and not fear walking on my own fire
Speak I must because I was almost silenced
I speak simply because I AM HERE
When I'm gone I'm leaving words and tracks behind
Meditation
How unprepared can we be for the silent edges of our land
For the simplicity of the wind
For space unbroken by the hands of urbanization
How impoverished we are by the many, many things that bind us
If only we could remember how to flow like the hills, to bend like a tree, to surrender to love like earth to sky
Would we know freedom then?
THE SAVERA – FOUNDUE AD
INSPIRATION
GENERAL COURAGEOUS
- PRATIMA SUNDARATAJAN
The story of an army officer who has risen above odds and become a source of inspiration for all
INSPIRATION
When a series of zooming bullets ripped his stomach apart and punctured the lumbar region of his spine, Lieutenant Colonel Sunil Kumar Razdan knew that he would never be able to walk again. This was not exactly something to cheer about for a spunky parachute trooper who had hitherto lived a daring life brimming with mountaineering expeditions, sky diving and motorbike hikes!
Lieutenant Colonel Razdan served as an army officer in the Special Forces involved in counter-terrorism operation in terrorist-ridden Kashmir valley. His birthday, October 8, 1994 turned out to be the day that changed his life forever. That morning news was brought to him that fourteen women, including young girls had been abducted by terrorists and were being sexually assaulted for the past one week.
Razdan and twenty of his men scaled forty kilometers of the mountainous terrain on foot for more than three hours. At last, they established contact with the assaulters in Damal Kunzipur. The ladies were holed up in a three-storeyed house with the militants on the upper floor. The Army squad managed to rescue the women through a kitchen window and opened fire on the assailants. In the battle that ensued, nine of the militants were wiped out. However, Razdan suffered severe bullet injuries when one of the militants shot at him at point-blank range. Collecting his wits and, bizarre as it may sound, his fallen intestines in a cloth, braving the pain and profuse bleeding, Razdan crawled out. At an altitude of 3,800 meters, there was no medical help in hand. His buddies helped him to a primary health centre where he administered his own intravenous drip, and after 16 hours, was air lifted to a hospital.
For a whole year, Razdan lived in hospitals. “My doctors told me that I would never get up from my bed. I said 'to hell' and got up”, he said. He had been subjected to multiple surgeries and nine feet of his intestines had been removed. Razdan was not one to be cowed down and he began to devise ways to bounce back to as normal a life as he could lead. “Early realization and acceptance of my disability helped me pull through psychologically. My wife has played a major role in my recovery ensuring that I continue to fight with her”, says he with a twinkle in his eyes.
As a first step, Razdan began to work on strengthening his abdomen by controlling his diet – only two meals a day, breakfast and dinner. He subjected himself to a strict exercise regimen for his hands by using a pulley and weights. “I refused to take sedatives. I prefer the pain, which I still endure all the time, because it acts as a stimulant, keeping me awake and helping me learn more about things in
INSPIRATION
different spheres of life – science, occult science, technology, human life and innovation”, he declares. “During my school days, I used to sleep with my eyes open. Now I sleep with my mind open”.
Gradually, from his wheelchair, Razdan began doing all the things that he had been doing before the injury. “There is no substitute for hard work”, says he. “My motto 'I can' has made me do whatever any normal human being can do. I am not scared of failures. I take both success and failure in the same stride.” Razdan rose from the level of Lieutenant Colonel to a Colonel and recently to a Major General and has become the first undeterred army officer in the history of Indian Army to serve from
a wheelchair.