Sucker punch:

Sunday, April 24, 2011 | shubha khamparia


Everyone has an Angel. A Guardian who watches over us. We can’t know what form they’ll take One day, Old man, Next day, Little girl. But don’t let appearances fool you, They can be as fierce as any dragon. Yet they’re not here to fight our battles. But to whisper from our hearts. Reminding that it’s us. Its everyone of us who holds power over the world we create.
You can deny angels exist, Convince ourselves they can’t be real. But they show up anyway, at strange places and at strange times. They can speak through any character we can imagine. They’ll shout through demons if they have to. Daring us, challenging us to fight.

Who honors those we love for the very life we live? Who sends monsters to kill us and at the same time sings that we'll never die? Who teaches us what's real and how to laugh at lies? Who decides why we live and what we'll die to defend? Who chains us and who holds the key that can set us free? It's you. You have all the weapons you need. Now fight!
 
 

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A morning at VMS.

Thursday, March 3, 2011 | shubha khamparia

Close your eyes and try to walk around your room..little difficult?

Or try blind folding your eyes and spend a whole day ..HARD?

Or try doing all basic activities of the day blind folded..HARDER?

What if you are asked to spend the whole life the same way?IMPOSSIBLE!!

I took my first lecture on english for the 6th standard students in Victoria Memoria School for the Blind,
and I found that nothing seemed to be HARD or IMPOSSIBLE for those Kids.
Saturday morning I was a bit confused about how would I deal with the kids , what if I go wrong somewhere?
What if I named a colour,then how would I explain them that?
I was nervous..
But believe me,I had a BIG smile on my face since the time I entered the class , till I reached back home.

I had four students in my class..Anand, Ravi ,Shiva and Mayank, and one more volunteer from TCS.
They introduced themselves in english not so good , but amazingly very sweet :)
The introduction content was: name,favourite subject, hobbies and aspirations.
The kids like playing cricket ,watching CID and playing musical instruments.
When asked about thier aspirations, some students said abhi socha nai.., some aspired to be a musician.
I saw books in Braille for the first time.I could not sense anything in those dots.
There was a wrist watch on Ravi's hand which was a hurdle for my concentration,as I was wondering..how would he use it?

And in some time Mayank asked Ravi 'what's the time?' and he pressed a button so the watch spoke the time for him.
And I literaly felt like a fool at that moment.

The students were very much enthusistic about learning new words , grammer and conversation.
Infact Anand told me that saturdays are the best days of the month for him because he gets to meet us and learn some new english words.
While going through a story we came accross a sentence 'The peasant found a treasure in a BOX while ploughing the field.It was filled with gemstones and coins of gold and silver'.

The students asked me what are 'gemstones'? I answered 'Diamonds,heere jawaharaat' and expected the next question to be: how/what are these?
But to my surprise Anand said "kitna khush hua hoga na wo farmer.."
They stood up at their place every time they answered any question.I had never seen such enthusiasm in any class.

There were a few instances when I was completely stunned..:

1.Ravi asked me 'May I go to toilet..' And then I was confused whether I should help him through the way ..or..
but the other volunteer who was experienced with the kids stopped me. And as I said yes, Ravi easily went out of the class ,walked through the corridor, found his way to the loo and back to the class. He sat exactly in his position without any hurdles!

2.Mayank had problem with the FAN, so he asked Shiva to shut it off.
Shiva so smoothly went to the switch board and pressed exactly the switch that turned the fan off!

3.There was some drilling going on downstairs, so Anand could not concentrate. He repeatedly said that he cant stand the noise pollution. He stood up to close the windows, which were about 10 meters away from him , He banged on me once as I was standing unepectedly at a wrong place. But he found the windows , closed them ,and while coming back to the place he banged a few plastic chairs which were wrongly arranged,so he arranged them back in order.
I am still trying to figure out 'HOW?'

After around 2 hours of lecture ,Shiva inturrupted us in middle saying 'Kantaala aa gaya abhi bas karo na yaar .. lets sing some songs.."
After the class , Shiva sang 'dont say ALVIDA'.
Mini, one of the voluntiers , took me to the music room where students played the song 'AAWAN AKHIYA' on harmonium and tabla,
It was mesmerising. They could beat any one ,in any music competition.

I may have tought those kids a few simple words , but from them ,I learnt a very important lesson for the life time .
And that is "Come what may..Keep smiling , be enthusiastic, learn new things , forget all sorrows,indulge,enjoy! This is the way to live life.:)"

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