The Joy of Sharing

Ketan Kothari, SIAO

Wednesday 9th December was a very pleasant day and the evening air was just about pleasant. December chill was not at all in the air. The day was made warm by the fact that I was in Chembur to attend the award presentation ceremony of NSEOH. Prof. M. S. Raju of VisionAid, Vishakhapattanam was one of the recipient. (Dr. Rohit Trivedi another of our partner was also one of the winner, though he was absent).


Justice Chandrashekhar Dharmadhikari was the Chief Guest and Lion Rajiv Manwani was the Guest of Honour.After the initial formalities, several awards were presented. It was joyous to be present where one of our partners was felicitated.

But the climax of the function came when Justice Dharmadhikari started his address. One of the legal luminaries, Justice Dharmadhikari was very eloquent at the ripe age of 82. His speech was an eye-opener and in fact that speech has prompted me to pen down my reflections.

He narrated 2 incidences that occurred in his life. In the first instance, he told us about his experiences of working as Chairman of a school for the blind. He said that his experience as very painful and that experience made him resign his position. He said that he had returned a box of sweets which was donated by a rich villager on the occasion of his mother’s death. Justice Dharmadhikari was very happy that he had done the right thing. But alas! The next day a few of the students approached and enquired of him if he had returned some sweets. He answered in the affirmative and said that he did not want his students to be looked as pitiful individuals but wished that they should be treated normally. But one of the students poignantly asked him, “Sir, you have deprived us of our sweets forever; we come from poor families and do you think anyone would ever come and donate sweets to blind children on festive occasions? We shall never get to eat sweets again.” Justice Dharmadhikari thought that the society has not treated disabled equally and he resigned his post with deep sadness.

On another occasion, while visiting an asylum in Bangalore on account of his mother’s mental problems, he observed several children stoning the patients and enjoying. He was very sad. The supervisor asked him, “You are young like these kids; why don’t you join the fun?” He answered “I cannot have such fun; one of the patients happen to be my mother”.

He was of the opinion that we should share our joy and the pain of the disabled. Joy increases with sharing and pain gets divided. He as very critical of “frozen relationships” that we live in cities like Mumbai.

It is a very timely thought; we must mean inclusion when we talk of it. We must not treat the disabled as “they” and the others as “us”. We must all stop treating the disabled as “animals in the zoo”. Let us pledge that we will come forward and be at least good listeners to allow disabled to give vent to their frustration and also to share in their small joys.