"Like Hellen Keller"

Enable India’s (EI) PwD trainings promote empowerment because overcoming the social and economic obstacles embedded in impairment takes much more than just a handout.

Shanti and Dipesh, EI’s founders, are well aware that sympathy provides no true solution to the discrimination faced by PwDs. Shanti watched her brother, a man affected by late-onset blindness struggle to find employment despite graduating top of his class from a top-tier university. He wasn’t unqualified, he was stigmatized. The same could be said for PwDs across India and the world. Part of overcoming that stigma includes having the confidence to walk into a room without feeling like a burden for being there; working on a team knowing that you have valuable skills to contribute; understanding that everyone has their own abilities and disabilities; speaking honestly about your impairment and telling others that you are not always in need of sympathy– this is the mindset EI contributes.

Below is a story which highlights EI philosophy and practice well. I hope you find the same connection I’ve found.
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While walking home from work last week, I met Pradip.

Our introduction was straight forward and succinct; my friend Annie, an EnAble India employee and recent graduate with a Master’s in Sociology, turned to me and said “This is Pradip - P.R.A.D.I.P - he is, you know, like Helen Keller.”  In other words, Pradip is deaf, blind and mute.

Annie held out her hand, indicating that my own hand should meet Pradip’s. I felt nervous and unaware of how I could communicate. I was stunted for a brief moment; was it possible to share my thoughts? I had just learned to sign the ABCs a few days earlier, my reiteration of the alphabet was almost appalling (I’ve learned a few more signs since then!)

Within seconds Pradip’s hand met mine. And you know what? My illiteracy in sign language didn’t matter because he talked to me in a way I understood. He turned my palm face up and began to scribe a message in the center of my right hand. With a gentle finger, he traced N-A — “He wants to know your name” Annie jumped in.

I gave my best attempt at reciting R-E-B-E-C-C-A. Pradip can’t see, so he folded one hand around mine as I spelled each letter. When I finished, he closed his fingers into a light fist and gestured as if he we’re knocking on a door which hovered parallel above the ground. “He got it” Annie told me, “that means ‘okay, understood.'”

We started walking in the direction of home at around 6:15pm, a time of heightened traffic. (Really, when is there not traffic?)  Like most people in Bengaluru, we walk in the street, straddled between parked cars and moving motorists.  Annie and Pradip walked in front of me side-by-side. Their hands remained locked in conversation for the entirety of our short, 5 minute stroll. As I stood behind them, I watched and tried to learn. Never before had I seen communication occur in such a form.    

Then, the road came to a split. Pradip lived to the left, Annie and I lived to the right. In silence, not using a single spoken word, Annie urged Pardip to let is walk him the rest of the way home. He declined the request with a simple “no” and “good night.” Good night was one of the first phrases I had ever learned– I was happy to have understood a word within the conversation! She asked again. He replied with the same simple “goodnight.” The decision was made, we would part ways.

 

I needed to say goodbye. I felt I had to say something, anything. To express my gratefulness in meeting him would have been difficult so, instead, I drew a small smiley face in his palm. He gestured “okay, got it” and turned away, walking among the other cars and people on the street.

Annie and I watched him for a few moments.  I couldn’t help but think: Pradip can’t see the cars coming his way. He can’t hear them as they approach, horns honking.  Could he scream if need be?  I’m not sure. I was impressed and amazed by his courage and dexterity navigating the obstacles around him. After all, it had taken me- a person who is able to see and hear approaching dangers so that they can be avoided- several days to become a comfortable street crosser.

Pradip is like Helen Keller, and equally amazing. No sympathy required.