“I have never seen anything through my eyes all my life. Being visually impaired had many other major hurdles. During childhood, I was been made fun of. I could only play with my imagination. Being blind always made me feel inferior and less privileged. My childhood was not full of roses, not just due to my disability but also as our financial condition was not so strong.

In our family education was not given much of importance and for me it was even more difficult as I was more like a burden to my own family. They loved and cared for me, but I was never treated like other kids. I knew the challenges they faced because of me, I felt awful to always felt so dependent on the people around me. I remember there were times when I used to be so helpless during festivals, celebrations or wedding events to go to the washroom or even more bigger task while menstruating. People in the family used to feel shy to talk about menstruation and personal hygiene, I hardly had any friends to share these things out to. There was a day when one of my cousin was getting married and I was the next one to get married. My family had to hear many evil comments as they had a single blind daughter who is good for nothing and not a marriage material. They found a match for me and I got married at a young age. I thought things would change after marriage, now that I had someone who could relate to me and completely understand me. But it turned out to be an even more complicated situation as we both were blind as well as dependent on each other. It took some time for us to get used to be depending on our own refections, but we managed it and the only reason was our love.

We were extremely weak financially, so were struggling to meet our basic needs. We managed to get a telephone booth through disability benefits. We both worked there and it became our second home. We got cheated a few times by some naughty frauds as were blind but we saw trust in people so actually were never blind to see hope of goodness in others. We survived with the little income that we got through the telephone booth but time changed. We had our kids to look after and as they were growing, we had to earn more for their education. We sold stationery products for additional income and we cut down on many expenses to be able to do justice to our little ones. We wanted to make sure we educate our children so they can be on their own. Meanwhile life had some bigger stones to throw at us. Technology kept building stronger and our income started decreasing to an extent of completely vanishing.
At this stage, our kids had grown and we finally thought we could get a breather, a bit of relaxation at this age. But no, we were hit by a storm- one side telephone booth business was completely shut and the other side our son decided to not earn money for the family. He is married to a well understanding lady and they have a beautiful daughter. He keeps going out for work but he would either not work or he would not share the money at home. I and my husband were blind but were determined towards the support of our family so we started selling folders, pen, and small stationery items on station. We go home with less money but more love.

It feels great to go back home to our grand daughter who is the most cutest child on the planet. We have not seen her but her beauty and innocence has touched every corner of our hearts. We got the biggest shock of our lives to know that she is diagnosed with Blood cancer and her treatment needs a big amount. We are working hard to save money for her treatment and we know that soon we will do that. No I don’t know how but I am sure we can, our love for her will help us make it possible.
My grand daughter loves chocolates so we try to gift her these small joys of life. She keeps asking us the meaning of her disease and we become speechless. Her regular check ups are done at Nair hospital and she gets sad to see other kids suffering so much in pain due to their diseases. It is disheartening to see your close ones suffer she says in her innocent voice, we can’t hold her tears. She says I can see your tears and I feel bad, so please don’t cry, we will fight this together. We are blind but our hearts have powerful vision and we can sense things without seeing. Wish we could do something for our grandchild.

God knows what is there for us tomorrow, but we have this very moment to live in the present!
All we do is have a small happy meal together to share the joy of happiness.”

#missionjosh

Story By – Mansi Dhanak | Mission Josh

If you too have an inspiring story to tell the world, send us your story at [email protected]