12/13/2011

It’s day 456 of my journey towards independence and day 6 of vacation fed myself Chapati and beef curry for breakfast we are now  getting ready to go to Pandalam – my dad’s town – about an hour away from Anchal – my mom’s town where we are now – visiting m mom’s aunts on the way there. Yesterday I awoke thinking about the disabled children that lived here and the stigma that surrounded them and in the spirit of creating  change I sent Asianet – the state broadcaster – the following email – we do have internet here but in the other places we are going we might not so in an effort not to confuse you as to when I’m posting I’ll post all my vacation posts at once.  Take a look:

Dear Sir/Madam

My name is Nisha Varghese I am Malayalee visiting from South Africa who has Cerebral Palsy – a non-progressive condition affecting one’s motor skills and sometimes speech – as a result of having Cerebral Palsy I am wheelchair bound which wasn’t a big problem socially in South Africa but I couldn’t help noticing all the people blatantly staring at me when I went shopping at Royals two days ago I understand  that they mean no harm and that they’re only staring because they’re ignorant about matters of disability which brings me to the reason for my email I would like Asianet to raise awareness about disabilities and expose discrimination against disabled people thus bringing about equality.

Yours sincerely,

Nisha