Two days ago we had another near-deluge in the suburbs of Mumbai where our workplace is located. The roads were flooded, cars stalled in various places and traffic crawled. Needless to say, our young employees had a day off. Yes, they were disappointed and yes, we received message after message asking what we were doing! Some of us went in to work because we still had to run the tiffin service and send off the lunches.

We began the day — each one completing the usual assigned tasks of washing, cleaning, cutting, checking phone messages for orders, billing, cooking and so on. But darn, the silence was deafening. That was not surprising to me as a parent; when Aarti is away for whatever reason, while I enjoy the respite, her caregivers will complain in Marathi “ghar khayala uttthe”. Literal translation being the house is eating us up, meaning the silence is unbearable.

That day our support staff at the center felt exactly the same way. None of them have special education backgrounds, they are ordinary people needing to work for a living. They did not know (and neither did we) what we were getting in to when we began our venture and every month we scrape their salaries together. But after three months, the bonds are strong.

So what is the connection here?

There is a world view that has existed since time immemorial that persons with disabilities are ‘less than’. Even today they are viewed by some as a burden on families, on society, on precious resources. That is an unfortunate reality. One of our staff candidly shared with me that `quiet’ day, that the day she began with us, she was nervous expecting outbursts that she would not be able to handle, expecting an inability to communicate, expecting a lot of work because our employees would work slowly and tire easily. Then she added again in Marathi, “mala mahithi navathe itke karu shakthil!” Translated to mean, I did not know they could do so much!

The conversation continued when another chimed in, “the hasath yethath ani amhi pan hasto” …. “tyana kaam karayla kitti avadthe”…. ”kithi premal aheth!” . Translation: they come in happy and smiling and we are smiling too….they really love to work! ….. They are so loving…. And if I may add, unconditionally.

This is what our work, and the work of countless entities who work in this field is about. Creating the community, the cohesion, and recognizing the strengths that our individuals bring with them.

Without a doubt, our individuals have enhanced the quality of life for our staff – perfectly and pricelessly.

Thanks for reading!

Sushama