Ability or Inability

Yesterday was Wednesday. One of the days of the week, I still look forward to. For an obvious reason, Toastmasters. Yesterday's was a special meeting in association with an internal club of the organization, Sparsh- Healing Touch. The theme being- 'Educate, Empower, Heal'.

The Master Of Ceremony, reached out to me a couple of days ago asking me to deliver a speech related to the theme. Here's what I spoke:

"I may not have visited a lot of old age homes. Or orphanages. Or all the good places that give us an opportunity to educate, maybe empower or heal.

But each one of us goes through experiences that transform you into a more humble self of yours.

Toastmasters and guests, let me pick a memory of an evening that did it to me.

This was in Hyderabad. A couple of years ago. It was my first time in the city and I wanted to explore everything that the city had to offer. A couple of google searches later, I found myself in a mall, exhibiting the usual exuberance, glitz and glamour. I immediately headed to the 4^th floor. Ah, I was there. Unaware of what lied ahead, I excitedly bought the ticket. The guy at the counter handed me my ticket, a cane and said, “Take this along. You’ll need it.” I smirked and gave him a look that I’d give my mother when she’d give me an umbrella before stepping out of the house during rains. You get that look, right?

So, I stepped ahead and the massive orange colored door behind opened. I walked in and all I could see was nothing. It was dark. Pitch dark.

My instant reaction was to search for somebody or something. What do I do? Where do I go? What if I fall? Where is light? I felt helpless. I started to panic.

Suddenly, the initial confusion and panic was put to rest by a sweet baritone. “Hello, I’m Nasir and I’m going to be your guide for this tour through the darkness. I request you to stand in a queue, one behind the other. Put your right hand on the shoulder of the person standing in front of you and take 3 steps forward.” Oh, there are other people as mad as me to come here as well?

It was kind of funny. I could hear the voice, but had no idea where the voice was coming from. And forward? How do I see forward? What direction is it in? I had no option but to give in to the voice, the dialogue in the dark.

After struggling just a bit, I could feel assured that there were other human beings around me. Phew. A sigh of relief.

And thus began the experience that I was SO excited about. Finally, giving in to using the cane. The counter guy was after all, right.

Apprehensive, I played along. Nasir took us to a wall and made us sense the engravings on it. We had to feel the wall, examine the texture and guess what was engraved on it. “A man”, “A flower”, “A scenery”, people started shouting. “Which man?”, “Which flower?”, “Which scenery?”, Nasir pushed our imagination. We started touching the wall and feeling the nitty gritty of the engraving this time. Slowing down, touching and feeling the texture, one crest, one trough at a time, the image started getting clearer in our minds. “Lotus”, “Bhagat Singh”, “Mountains”. The room suddenly got filled with luminous joy as Nasir said we were correct.

After a while, I was really surprised at how calm I became. And Nasir’s, step by step instructions exhibited how planned and safe this was. I started having fun solving those puzzles. It was an absolute delight on having other senses come to rescue in the absence of sight. And how that awakened other senses, deepened self-awareness.

Next we were asked to take a few steps forward wherein we would find a rocking, shaky bridge and the idea was to cross it. The simple task of taking 10 steps and crossing a bridge seemed impossible. What if I fall? We are used to seeing “where” before taking a step, right? No matter how hard I tried to pop my big eyes out, I still couldn’t see anything.

“Walk slowly, count your steps. Take help of objects lying by the side” reassured Nasir.

And bravo! I crossed it. Having the sense of space without even looking at it made me feel like a hero.

The 45 minutes experience ended on a snacky note. Nasir led us to a café setup in the same room. Entering the café, taking our seats, Nasir recited the menu and took our order. As I handed him out the money, he prompted “That’s a 100. I need to give you 20 back.” Confused, mesmerized, before I could’ve said, “Yes.” ,he said “Here’s your 20”. I was flabbergasted. How did he know that was a 100?

After sipping the amazing coffee served by Nasir, I started walking out with a heavy heart, NOW not really wanting this to end. The doors opened and welcomed us with the gush of bright light; Blinked, cringed and then smiled. It was a relieving feeling similar to getting your first love back. Happy and excited that you have it again but difficult to let it fit in your life for you are a changed person who has adapted to new surroundings now.

I turned around to thank Nasir that is when I saw him tip-topping his cane, making his way and adjusting his blind glasses. Shocked and stunned, I looked at him with a blank face. While I had tears in my eyes, Nasir beamed. “In there, you were blind and the blind were sighted.”

As I heard those words, I questioned myself- did I just put myself in the care of a blind person for almost an hour? Did I ever imagine that?

And we think of ‘them’ as less-abled?

What gives us this power? Their ability or our inability?"

This was something I had written earlier. Tweaked it to fit the bill. :)