Just observing the acts of pure charity in this selfish world fills us with so much energy. Yesterday. I visited Ashadeep, a school for special children having difficulty in hearing, speaking, and also having certain cognitive issues. It was wonderful to meet the management as well as the students. The management is comprised of retired people from different government departments and banks. The school comprises a staff of around 20 people and 50 students. They are running this school with limited resources they have, charging very nominal fees from the students, which is also exempted in many cases. By and large, the school is running on donations.
I met some of the students who have difficulties in speaking and listening and their young teachers. I was fascinated by at least two things. First, these kids have been given a frame of life that has few limitations and yet they were so full of enthusiasm to develop a new frame. They are learning their own language quite enthusiastically and thus developing their entirely new frame. I really thought that they could write so beautifully and have a very sharp brain. Just because they can not speak and listen, why their possibilities should be restricted? Why don't all the schools give exposure to all the kids to learn that language so that they can interact with the entire world quite at ease? Disability does not lie at their end rather we are disabled and we can not listen to their language. We are fixated on our frame and can't make sense of their frame.
Second, the young teachers working with so much of enthusiasm with a jus hand to mouth salary was a source of inspiration to me. When you love what you do, it does not matter what you get in return. In fact, the reward is instant. The smile on the faces of the kids is the instant reward for the teacher. The students can dance and communicate with us so well with the help of the teacher. I have seen many people crying about inflation and limited resources. Sometimes all these concerns get into the minds of all of us including myself. However, when we get to meet people like these teachers, we get an opportunity to see life from an altogether different frame.
The management is also a source of inspiration. In fact, one of the members of management told us that he was quite ill when he joined the school and all his diseases disappeared after that. I feel that many of our diseases, especially in old age when we do not have a fixed routine are due to the absence of any cause. The moment we get associated with such a cause, we come out of the fixation with the body sensations. That fills us with a new energy of cause and we get rid of many such diseases.
Thus, rewards on the path of philanthropy are instant. Over the weekend, I got to see another frame where in a social gathering, and could see that kids are being conditioned as early as at the age of 2 years. Why would some kid cry that nobody comes to attend my birthday unless that sense of "I" and "other" is so strong? How can a kid of a few years have such a strong sense of "I" unless the same is being constantly done by society? Kids of 2 years are dancing to the tunes of Bollywood without understanding the lyrics. In the society of the dead, life finds some way. I happened to meet an infant of a few months and communicated with him without words for a few minutes. He was so full of life as if he had come to this body to explore the beauty and diversity of life. So curious his expressions were. I feel sad when this society imprisons these possibilities to the cells of their narrow beliefs and mindset. The parents have refused to grow and also deny the possibilities to their kids to grow. The young teacher can create a new frame for the special children to explore new possibilities and these "unaware" parents can close the frames that are already available for their kids to explore. That's the difference and we, as parents, have to decide what we want to do with our kids.
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