If you haven’t read the “about me” section yet, let me give you a quick summary. My name is Mandar Salunkhe and I am a locomotive disabled person.
My disability was a boon and a curse.
At the age of one, when I barely took my first steps, one night I had a huge fever. My family scampered to get me a doctor. In India, doctors are almost worshipped as if they are an incarnation of god, however, this night, the doctor showed his human side and made an error. He injected me 4 times into my hips. Well, the fever surely left my body and so did the sensation in my body. I was barely able to breathe. Despite the fact that I had completed all my vaccinations, I had a severe polio attack.
(now, I don’t want to explain the biology of the human body but poliovirus kills the motor nerves of the body and you lose the connection between the brain and the body parts, like legs, arms… You get the point. Back to the life story)
The battle of life spanned over months and with the grace of god and a good doctor (another doctor, this time), I survived but at the cost of my legs. The doctor declared that I would never be able to walk again. And my mother was the most affected.
My mother was just 22 years old when this news hit her. “what did I miss? What I could have done better?” These questions plagued her youth. The marriage was never the same and the peace of the house was lost.
I was the second child to my parents. My elder brother had started his schooling. After a lot of struggle, my parents decided (against the advice of many of the “well-wishers”) to put me in school.
Here, this was the best thing for me, to be treated as a normal kid, was the best thing my parents did for me.
India is a developing country, there are no disability-friendly schools or overall infrastructure. In school, I met my only true enemy — the stairs. Uff, the animosity started as a child and will continue till the day I die.
Battling the odds, I completed my schooling, my graduation, then post-graduation, and then joined a reputed IT firm as a process auditor (AAAA.. Well I don’t know if I can simplify the job I do any better without being technical and I promised I won’t do technical so..)
I earn a decent amount for a living. (bread and butter and butter chicken checked)
But something was missing. As I grew up, I missed telling stories. (wait, let us take a quick flashback tour)
You see as a disabled person, my mother taught me one key thing. — Son you may not have 2 legs but if you keep your tongue in control then all these people will be willing to help you. You will never feel like you didn’t have legs.
I took this advice to my heart. I didn’t belittle anyone, I didn’t bully anyone. I tried to help as much as possible. I found good in people and encouraged them. I would entertain them by telling stories. My tales would be inspired by readings. I read a lot as a child and then I will bring a few kids together to summarize the book’s story. Later on, I understood, hey, my audience hasn’t read that book so I can improvise the story. There I started forming my own stories.
This helped me connect with other kids as a person. Now they didn’t see me as a disabled kid but saw me as a boy, just as they were. This in turn made them help me, not out of pity but out of kindness… Some picked me on their shoulders to my class, some took me on long rides to show the city and even to movies, etc. I made genuine connections with people. My bonds of friendship stayed strong with the test of time.
THIS, I got to experience this due to the boon of disability.
So now that I have established that I love to tell stories, it is pretty clear that I am here to tell you stories. I want to express every thought in my head. Be it fictional or tales from my life — how life happened to me. How I am planning to improve my life and take it a notch. How I am working on the cause of disability inclusion in India.
I love to tell stories because in stories I am not limited by my body. I can fly and I can soar high. Here in this world and between these words, I can be anything.
I assure you if you give me 15 minutes of your time and have a glance at a few articles I published here, I can win your heart and it would be my honor to be associated with you.
You could follow me and get my content served to you, piping hot. Neat isn’t it?
So the point is, I am here for readers. And I would love a chance to enthrall you all 🙂
So I would like to end this post with a new beginning…
Once upon a time, a reader finished reading an article about a boy in a wheelchair and smiled.