P S SUNDAR'S ARTICLE ON HIS SON - 6

WHEEL CHAIR, A SYMBOL OF ABILITY, NOT DISABILITY! 

 BY P.S SUNDAR 

  “Next time you see a wheelchair, call it a symbol of ability, not disability”, said Syed Salluddin Pasha, founder of Ability Unlimited Foundation (AUF), New Delhi, after presenting spellbinding dances by his differently-abled disciples at ‘Life Redefined’ programme conducted by Nilgiris Cultural Association in Coonoor three weeks ago.

He was right because for these performers, wheelchair was their leg; more importantly, it was the equipment giving them confidence and credit resulting in their institution gaining entry in Guinness Book of World Records for presenting over 10,000 performances of more than 100 dance-theatre productions. 

 And, the performance was incredible, given the reality that they spun the wheels 150 kilometres per hour, adventurously drove all over the stage with high speed exerting unbelievable brake-control to stage breathtaking acrobatic dance forms. They even glorified wheelchair as decorated ‘ratham’ for Kurushektra episode. 

 “We do several hours of practice to be adept on wheelchair”, Pasha told me. “Most certainly, I understand the limitations”, I told him without disclosing the reality that my wife and I know what life on wheelchair is, given the fact that our only son Vignesh was on wheelchair for eight years until he breathed his last as Twelfth class student on Oct 21, 2003. 

 As Vignesh was suffering from the incurable muscular dystrophy which was weakening his muscles gradually but steadily, there was no way he could use his hands to drive the wheelchair. We had kept an attendant to drive him to school and hospital daily at Perambur in Chennai. AUF students’ mastery over wheelchair is by those whose hands are strong.

 Wheelchair was undoubtedly the mode of mobility for Vignesh without which he would not have achieved his academic excellence and so, it was his symbol of ability. We even attempted to create a living-station with hygienic toilet attachment. By removing a metal sheet on the seat, an emergency commode could be fixed, but we never used it.

 I had arranged for a modern, motorised wheelchair from Japan but before it could reach, Vignesh passed away. An anecdote has it that a small boy pelted a stone on a speeding Jaguar car in the USA causing a dent and when the owner stopped and shouted at him, the boy replied, “Sorry, but I didn’t know to drag attention to people when everyone is speeding...my brother has fallen off the wheelchair and I can’t lift him..Kindly help”. The man put the brother on wheelchair, nurtured his bruises and apologised to the small boy for being rude.. but did not repair the dent to remind himself, “I should not speed through the life so that someone has to throw a stone at me to show the ground reality”!

I recall the day when Vignesh fell off from his wheelchair while I tried to negotiate through a short slope. I should have driven the wheel chair in reverse tilting it upstairs. If he falls, besides causing any possible injury to him, we would need help to lift and place him back on wheelchair.

 We have donated his wheelchairs but retain one as his memory – a symbol of his ability! 

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