www.newindpress.com KOCHI
Dec 18, 2007 Paradise regained Tuesday December 18 2007 09:21 IST Sudha Nambudiri Buy/Sell/Rent Property of your Choice in your City. KOCHI: Turning blind one fine morning was a reality, hard to come to terms with for Ansar. But from there, he negotiated a tough terrain and is today bringing relief to others from physical pain! Ansar, the foot reflexologist at Taj Residency at Marine Drive, can massage your ailment away by working on the feet alone! His work requires supple hands and tremendous concentration, but he has picked the gauntlet with confidence. "My massage works effectively on those with sciatica problems, stomach pain, stress-related complaints and diabetes," he says. A trained masseur in panchakarma, Swedish massage and yoga, Ansar had been working at ayurvedic centres when life took a cruel turn, making him blind. "God must have known that I would be turning blind in my twenties which was why he gave me this gift," says Ansar. Ansar is on call for guests of the hotel and does foot massage in the privacy of their room where the guest can feel relaxed. He has a basket which contains a lotion, a towel and a cream. "No medicine is applied. The solution lies in the way the foot is massaged," he tells, showing where the sensitive points of a various parts of the body like sinus regions, sciatia, stomach, kidneys, shoulders etc reach beneath the foot." The massage extends from half-an-hour to an hour. "It is very helpful for those who are tired, unable to sleep and suffer from a jet lag or severe exhaustion." He has been there at the hotel for a couple of months now and is already a familiar face among the guests. When he joined the hotel, Ansar walked around on all floors to find his way with the help of another guy. Now all he needs to know is the room number and he reaches there on his own. "Many guests who are on business trips ask for my services whenever they come here," he says. Acknowledging his abilities, the Taj management has arranged a poolside facility for Ansar to do foot massages for those who don't stay at the hotel. "Even people in the city can call up the hotel and avail my services at the hotel," he says. So how does he manage life? "My timings here are from 9 am to 7 pm. I come from my home at Aluva by bus and get down at Menaka stop. There's always someone to help me cross the road and slowly I make it here." Ansar talks of the days when he turned blind. "I caught conjunctivitis and my eyes developed an allergy to the medicine that was administered. Initially the eyes turned red but the complications took me to the point of becoming blind. For many days I just sat at home, frustrated and down, wondering how I would go on with life as a blind man." He then got in touch with the Society for Rehabilitation of the Visually Handicapped (SRVC) and asked them to help him out with a job so that he could become independent. "It was through SRVC that I got an opening at the Taj group," says Ansar, spreading light all around him with a beaming face. To unsubscribe send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
