Tag Archives: People

Day 164

To become truly great, one has to stand with people, not above them. – Charles de Montesquieu

It’s 11: 01 PM on day 164 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours – no luck today – feed myself a chicken polony sandwich for brunch, exercise for 5 minutes while watching the Cricket World Cup match: South Africa vs. West Indies – congratulations to The Proteas – our national cricket team – you guys did AWESOME South Africa loves you – special mentions must go to AB de Villiers and debutant Imran Tahir both of whom played EXCEPTIONALLY well – keep it up guys 🙂 – and feed myself Chapati – an unleavened flatbread – and chicken curry for dinner.

Today I asked my friend @pamslove (Pam) if she could help me raise the remaining $3691.31 that I still need to build a well in Africa or India and she told me she would happy to retweet my blog posts and that’s when I came up with the three way in which YOU could help too you could: log on to http://www.firstgiving.com/nishavarghese and make a donation, organize a fundraiser at your workplace/church/school (Note: if you do organize a fundraiser make sure you check the website on the day of the fundraiser because the ‘Total raised so far’ changes almost every day) or help spread the word by sharing this post with everyone you know via social networking sites and email. Will you stand in front of me, behind me or beside me? 🙂

Day 163

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Experience is not what happens to you. It is what you do with what happens to you. – Aldous Huxley

It’s 10: 54 PM on day 163 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself a chicken hotdog for breakfast, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours – two donations were made today – the first one was a $25 donation from @morsemusings (Dawn) and the second one was a $10.77 donation from @uncledorothy (Vanessa) – thank you guys you’re support means a LOT to me 🙂 –feed myself rice and curry for lunch, join a few Cerebral Palsy groups on Facebook, exercise for 5 minutes, feed myself Chapati – an unleavened flatbread – and chicken curry for dinner, continue reading Holly by Jude Deveraux and watch The Oprah Winfrey Show – the show was about Ingrid Betancourt’s new book Even Silence Has An End in which she told of what it was like being held hostage for over 6 years in the Colombian jungle and as I listened to her speak I realized that the only thing people can never take away from you is your freedom of choice 🙂

You may remember that a few days ago I wrote a post in which I said you use your life to help others and you will forever be happy as a human being well today I did exactly that I was online spreading the word about this blog and my campaign when I stumbled onto this post on a website called Daily Strength I just can’t help but think… why me? Why did this happen? People say I was made this way for a reason but after all these years I still haven’t figured it out. Someone told me that God has great things planned for me… but all this pain and hardship is not exactly a great thing…I’m waiting, hoping for the great things to come. Why was I made this way and not my siblings? How can I do anything “great” the way I am… isn’t that what normal people are for? to do great things? What was I meant to do that is so great? Does anyone feel the same way? What helps you get through it when you feel like this? after I read that something came over me I signed up for an account and wrote her a reply saying I know exactly how you feel I even wrote about it > http://wp.me/pZonG-J not as a means of self-promotion but rather to show her that she could be great in spite of Cerebral Palsy. Do you use your experiences to help others or waste oxygen feeling sorry for yourself? 🙂

Day 162

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You should never be ashamed of any aspect of your life – that’s what I learned today.

It’s 10: 43 PM on day 162 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours – no luck today – feed myself bread and jam for brunch, listen to music, feed myself rice and curry for dinner, watch the Cricket World Cup match: England vs. Netherland – I couldn’t believe that the Dutch had done so well they lost but still they fought till the very end 🙂 – start reading Holly by Jude Deveraux – for the THIRD time LOL – I am NOT obsessed I am just a sucker for romance 🙂 – and exercise for 5 minutes.

Today at about 3:30 PM I heard the roar of an engine and when I looked out through the dining room window I saw that my parents had come home from work and my first instinct was to close the website I was on because I knew that if my father saw me reading Romans 12: 9-21 I would be in for a world of ridicule but then I realized that in doing that I would be denying my faith so I just kept doing what I was doing before my father had arrived and true to form he came in, saw what I was reading and said with a tone of mockery in his voice so you’re reading the Bible… have you also been saved – referring to my uncles who had recently converted to Evangelism – and I replied with a strength I didn’t know I had saying I will not apologize for reading the Bible just because you don’t. Would you forsake everything that you held near and dear just to be accepted? 🙂

Day 161

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A saint is a sinner who keeps on trying – Nelson Mandela

It’s 10: 16 PM on day 161 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours – no luck today – bread and jam for brunch, create a Facebook account for this blog – add http://www.facebook.com/adventuresofme as a friend and tell me what’s important to you and who knows I might just write a post about it – my blog is your blog 🙂 – and feed myself rice and curry for dinner, exercise for 5 minutes and watch The Oprah Winfrey Show.

Today lying on my bed in deep dismay over the fact that nobody had donated I thought to myself it is the global recession people are broke, jobless and have their own children to feed and suddenly I remembered my own story and thought you were broke, jobless and disabled and you still managed to scrounge $82 together to give water to those in need and that’s when I realized that the mere fact that I tried to make a difference was reason enough to smile. Are you a saint who keeps on trying or a sinner who gave up way back when? 🙂

Day 160

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You should fight for an ideal even if you don’t live to see the fruits of your labour – that’s what I learned today 🙂

It’s 10: 04 PM on day 160 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, listened to music – Tiffany Alvord and Emily Harder are REALLY good it’s beyond me why they haven’t been signed to a record label yet – hopefully they will be soon 🙂 – tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours – no luck today – go to a prayer administered by a visiting priest from India who is here to study theology for the next two years – it was very insightful he spoke about how we are the living building blocks that God uses to build his spiritual temple and that we shouldn’t forget that God is the cornerstone of that temple – and go out to dinner with the priest – I ordered a rib burger – the whole time that I was eating I kept thinking please don’t drop the fork, please don’t drop the fork, please don’t drop the fork – I had done so twice in the space of 10 minutes and I was DETERMINED not to let it happen again and it didn’t – it was the first time in my nineteen-year-life that I had ever used a fork and knife usually when we went out to eat my mother would sit next to me and feed me – I was SO proud of myself 🙂

Today as we – my sister, my mother and I – sat at our table in the Las Vagas Spur at the Hemingways Mall waiting for the others to arrive I looked around the restaurant and saw people of different races – black, white, Indian, Chinese – laughing and having a good time and it almost brought tears to my eyes because I knew that not so long ago a black man would have been jailed for going into a ‘white man’s toilet’ and in that moment I thought of Walter Sisulu, Oliver Tambo and all the other freedom fighters who fought for freedom even when it seemed like a far away dream and decided that I would always fight for human rights even if it only benefited the children of my grandchildren’s generation. Do you only fight for an ideal if you know that it will benefit you in the present? 🙂

Day 158

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The greatest discovery of all time is that a person can change his future by merely changing his attitude. – Oprah Winfrey

It’s 10: 28 PM on day 158 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours – no luck today :(– edit the questionnaire I’m using for my book and send it to my friend in Portugal for her to fill out (if you have no idea what talking about refer to Day 153) – listened to music, watched TV and feed myself Nina’s Pizza for dinner – it didn’t taste as good as it did the last time probably because I wasn’t all that hungry to begin with.

A couple of days ago @angels510 (Angie) asked me why I chose nisha360 to be my Twitter username and I suddenly had a flashback to the exact moment when my life changed I was sitting on my wheelchair in my room thinking to myself well this is stupid I’ve been waiting all my life for God to give me something in return for taking away my legs and nothing’s happening I am going to flip my life and use the fact that I am in a wheelchair to inspire people and when I snapped back into the present moment I replied it symbolizes how my life has changed since I was 16 I had really low self-esteem and thought the world would be better off without me… what a difference 4 years makes 🙂 and that I guess is my message to all of you use your life to help others and you will forever be happy as a human being. Is your attitude holding you back from living your best life? 🙂

Day 157

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I praise loudly, I blame softly. – Catherine the Great.

It’s 9: 48 PM on day 157 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself a chicken polony and lattice sandwich for breakfast, watched TV, practice wheeling myself around the house – I made it as far as the living room and no further but you know what hell will freeze over before I give up on myself 🙂 – feed myself rice and curry for lunch, play with my brother for a while – I LOVE kids they’re so in the moment every moment and when with them it’s like your transported back in time to your own childhood – thanks buddy 🙂 – feed myself a toasted chicken polony sandwich for dinner and tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours –a $5 donation was made by my friend @morsemusings (Dawn) who by the way has donated to my campaign more times than I can remember – thanks Dawn I can honestly say I am a better person for knowing you 🙂

As you may know I have an opinion about everything and I will not hesitate in ripping someone to shreds if I perceive them to be doing something that is hindering human progress but every so often I see something that I believe deserves a standing ovation which brings me to the Touching Lives initiative by the SABC – our national broadcaster – on every news broadcast they shine a light on a story that needs attention and ask the public to help out by donating money/goods/services. Are you always the first one to blame and the last one to praise?

Day 156

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¹⁵ “I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were one or the other! ¹⁶ But since you are like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth! (Revelations 3: 15-16)

It’s 9: 46 PM on day 156 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, peel and feed myself a banana for breakfast, watched TV, feed myself rice and curry for lunch, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours – no luck today but hey at least I got the word out and tried my very best 🙂 – exercise for 15 minutes, edit the questionnaire I’m using for my book and send it to my friend in Austria for her to fill out (if you have no idea what talking about refer to Day 153) – and feed myself Batura – deep fried bread – for dinner.

Today @DrJackKing (Jack) invited me to become a part of Youth Voices Advisory Round Table and I won’t lie at first I was a little hesitant because I thought I wouldn’t be able to manage my time effectively but after he told me that it was about making the voices of the youth heard and showing them that they too could change the world I was all in because I believe that you’re either a part of the problem or a part of the solution with that said I urge to email Jack at drjeking@yahoo.com and find out if you’re eligible to join us at the Youth Voices Advisory Round Table. Are you hot, cold or lukewarm? 🙂

Day 155

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Sometimes you’ve got to shut the door on the world and open up to yourself – that’s what I learned today.

It’s 10: 58 PM on day 155 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself Batura – deep fried bread – for breakfast, watched TV, feed myself a chicken polony and lattice sandwich for lunch, listened to music – you know how they say the best things come in threes I think they were talking about The Jonas Brothers aside from their good-looks – which is what I’m sure most girls are interested in LOL 🙂 – they can really sing – edit the questionnaire I’m using for my book and send it to my friend in Ireland for her to fill out (if you have no idea what talking about refer to Day 153) – feed myself rice and curry for dinner, tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours – a $21.54 donation was made by my friend @DrJackKing (Jack) just when I was about to go to bed – I was so grateful – thanks Jack 🙂 – and exercise for 10 minutes.

Today as I sat on the toilet and remembered how my parents had basically ordered me to go to the bathroom because they wanted to call it a night I was so overcome by this feeling of powerlessness that I just cried for the next fifteen minutes even though I knew that everybody in the house could probably hear me after which I wiped my tears away and asked my parents to help me out of there and looking back on it now I realize that the ultimate sign of self-respect is giving yourself permission to feel what you feel in the moment regardless of who is watching or listening. Do you always say no to yourself and yes to the world?

Day 154

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Peace has its victories, but it takes brave men and women to win them. – Ralph Waldo Emerson.

It’s 11: 07 PM on day 154 of my journey towards independence and I’ve managed to brush my teeth, feed myself Chapati – an unleavened flatbread – for breakfast – originally my mother had put chicken in it but I remembered just in time that it was Meat-free Mondays and took the chicken out – tweet about my Clean Water For All Campaign for a few hours – no luck today 🙁 – feed myself Batura – deep fried bread – for lunch, exercise for 20 minutes – I was in SO much pain the whole time I kept thinking I’m not going to complain, I’m not going to complain, I’m not going to complain – edit the questionnaire I’m going to use for my book and send it to my friend in Malaysia for her to fill out (if you have no idea what talking about refer to Day 153) – and feed myself rice and curry for dinner – my mom had put beef in there but I noticed it straight away so I was able to go two Mondays in a row without eating meat – I am SO proud of me 🙂

Today as I was making my rounds on Twitter telling people my story I met @noxhanti (Noxi) from Burnley in the UK and she told me that her mother had gone into exile with a group of people including Former President Thabo Mbeki during the apartheid era and that was when I truly understood the enormity of the sacrifices that ordinary people made to ensure that South Africa became a democratic country and I felt so guilty because I knew that I seldom thought about or appreciated those who fought for a free South Africa so to Noxi’s mom – I apologize for not knowing your name – and hundreds of others just like her I say thank you for bringing racial equality to my country. Are you the brave man or woman who’s going to bring peace to today’s society? 🙂