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Green fingers
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Differently-abled people have a thing or two to teach us, observes Nirmala Narayanan in admiration
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I’ve been visiting the annual garden fair organised by Association for People with Disability for the last few years. It’s so heart warming to see the aesthetically grown plants at the garden developed by people who are differently-abled.
I am also the resident of the area where this garden is located. So I keep visiting this place not only during the annual fair but also frequently just to have an eye full of greenery. It’s quite amazing to see people with disabilities working in the garden, a task which requires good stamina. There are people who walk with sticks, some who are even seated in wheel-chairs going about their work. The Association trains such people in gardening and also find them placements in various places as garden maintainers or landscape designers and so on.
The students are mostly from rural areas, but after a few months of training they reel out the botanical names of many plants with so much ease. Mind you, most of the plants grown here for sale are exotic varieties; many are not native to our country. The rise in the level of confidence in these people after their training period is remarkable. The smile, the laughter, the enthusiasm that one would find on their faces is something each one of us should see to learn a lesson or two on how to live life fully.
Sundays being holidays, the students are allowed to go outside and I have seen some of them going around the colony and playing. The camaraderie that they share is worth mentioning for one might see a boy limping on one leg pushing his friend’s wheelchair while going around. The person who founded this association is also a differently-abled person.
Probably being in a similar condition herself, she has understood well as to what would bring happiness and confidence to people like herself for she has chosen a rare trade like gardening to train such people. The Association also teaches their students yoga to calm their minds and also to overcome the stress. This success story clearly indicates that people like her do not need our sympathy but only empathy. Empathise with them and allow them to do what they like, give them freedom to decide about what they want to do.
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