Special Education
On the eve of the start of the series Lillian D’Souza, a Senior Programme Manager of Max Mueller Bhavan, asked my permission to include a severely physically challenged girl in the sessions.
“Yes,” I replied, “why not?”
“But she has Cerebral Palsy and has little control over her motor function. Would you be comfortable with that?”
“Yes of course,” I responded, without having even a clue about the disability. I didn’t pause to ask her to explain.
This worried her. “Are you sure?”
“Yes,” I insisted.
And so Malini Chib came into my life.
Lillian brought her in to register along with all the other children.
She was on crutches, couldn’t manipulate her hands, spoke a few garbled words at a time after a
great deal of effort and presented an ungainly body which surprised most of the kids present. But that didn’t
disturb her; instead, she soldiered on, participating in activity after activity in her own determined way.
She made it all seem so natural.
The other participants accepted her almost instantly and gave her the space to do whatever she was able to do at her own speed.
On the third day, Jiten Gori, a little boy, joined her and watched whilst she assembled a colourful collage. After an hour of sitting
spellbound watching her, Jiten commented, “she is amazing. See how she concentrates. I would never be able to do that.
I wish I was her. I wish I had cerebr…whatever it is called.”
The kid hadn’t realised the true power and meaning of his own words. What he saw was not a physically challenged person
but an inspiring presence. In his own simple and unadulterated way, he was responding to the immense positive energy that Malini exuded.
Something shifted inside me as roles got reversed. The differently abled weren’t the receivers anymore but the givers, the
inspirers, the ones who led the way. They epitomised tenacity and resilience in the face of odds. My own challenges became
paltry as compared to theirs. I had a great deal more to learn from them than they had to learn from me.
After that series of workshops, I began to use arts activities to bring children of various abilities together. That led me
to taking up Special Education as a profession. As the years passed I moved into general education. When the time was right
and the Universe gave me the opportunity, I founded The RBA Centre for Special Education in the Rewachand Bhojwani Academy campus
in the city of Pune. That, I hoped, would encourage an environment in which diverse abilities could co-exist and learning together
would become the order of the day.
