Source: Humans of Bangalore

“I was always made fun of because of my skin condition. My own grandmother thought I was an abomination, they tried to take me to so many different temples to help me get ‘rid’ of my ‘disease’.

It wasn’t until I was 23 when I started teaching at a school for the deaf and mute that I realized I had a lot to be grateful for, till then I hated myself. Not that I gloated in my ability to hear and talk, but it just hit me on my face that my life could’ve been a lot more worse.

What if I was born with physical or mental disabilities? None of that happened and what turned things around for me was teaching enthusiastic little deaf and mute children who learnt comfortably, never caring that they had difficulties.

Why can’t it be that simple everywhere? Why must we stigmatize everything? There is no concept of ‘normal’, everything is the way it is and I wish my grandmother and everybody else in the family accepted it.. but it’s okay. I’ve accepted it and that’s all I care about.”