Hello Members, Hope everybody is doing well. Thought I would share my experience today on what I did on this new years day.
I was sitting in my boring room and surfing the internet. When I get a call from one of my friends asking me what I was planning to do this new year? I laughed and told him the usual remain blind till they can come up with robotic eyes for me to see again. He told me how would I like to go to the mall and grab something to eat? I said yes! And our adventure began at 6pm when a whole group of friends showed up at my door. My parents started worrying seeing the crowd but they managed to convince them that they were planning to take me out to the mall and they need not worry about my safety. Quickly I grabbed my cane and off we went in the car. The drive was short to the mall because I lived 2 blocks away from it. Initially, we struggled with parking space as it was a Saturday and new years the crowd just started pouring in. We got a good spot after some struggle. Got down from the car and headed to the enterance of the mall from the parking lot. Had a flight of stairs first to deal with, then a security check and then we were in! Like a loose cannon in the mall escorted by my sighted friends made it to the food court and to the Subway counter to order a sandwich. I had a turkey sandwich with coke. Hmmm that was a good sandwich to enjoy with coke. After that we did some shopping and bumped into a few things here and there mainly people who had sight but did not see me - HAHAHA I also experienced the escalator which was a joy ride for me and all my friends who took me there. Planning to do a movie Monday at the mall. Apparently, these guys are chill having me around and enjoy the adventure with me. And you know what all of them attempted to experience the escalator like me i.e. with their eyes closed and they found it very frightening but fun to do. That was my day till now. What I learned today from this experience is on many levels. First, they are true friends who do not mind your disability and feel no embarrassment of having a disabled friend around. Secondly, although the world is sighted they too are blind at times and do not pay so much attention to their surroundings, that explains me bumping into people. Also, there are people who are physically present but mentally absent. We had some fun with my disability too, like we went to a book store and i asked the attendant there to get me the best seller of the month to read and he was baffled and had no words to respond. We were expecting the guy to be smart and escort me to the audio book section but he had no clue and did not expect me to prank him that way... All in all it was fun and look forward to another adventure. when we are going to the mall to watch a movie planning to hassle the attendant that we are not going to pay for the ticket issued to me as for all practical reasons I did not watch the movie! - HAHAHAHA Have a great year ahead! Mujtaba Merchant Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ 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
