personal histories column from this week's tehelka.
ratheesh is a member of greenyouth, though i doubt he has posted anything
here,not even in the "snakes of kerala" thread:-)
personal histories
‘Wear
dark glasses, bump into somebody, fall — then they’ll be convinced’
Ratheesh Kumar
Is 34, a is a research associate
at IIT Mumbai
WHEN I ENTERED the interview chamber,
the panel members were searching for
my papers on the table and also saying
to each other, in soft tones, “He is Mr R
from _____ institute and he is also a
‘visually handicapped’ (VH) candidate”. There was some stress
on the term VH when some of them uttered it; for some reason
its meaning was obscure to them. Their concern and
confusion over its meaning made them pass the term between
themselves for another few seconds. It was not their
problem; I realised the notion of ‘visually handicapped’ is
always a tricky question in my identity.
Illustration: SUDEEP CHAUDHURI
Let me explain the incidents that made me think about
this. I applied for the post of assistant-professor in a prestigious
social science institute
in Mumbai. I applied in the
category of visually handicapped,
in which there was a
reservation for the post. I
have nearly 75 percent visual
disability (which is not really ‘visible’ to others), and I produced
a medical certificate issued by an eye-specialist from a
government hospital, counter-signed by the hospital superintendent.
When I arrived for the interview, I could not find my
name in the list of candidates for that day. Instead, I found my
name in the list of candidates called for the next day. Since I
had received the call letter for that particular date, I requested
the registrar to conduct my interview on the same day. He
asked me to wait till the end of the day, when the panel might
call me as the last candidate, though my call letter had scheduled
my interview for 11 am. Finally, they assured me that
they would conduct my interview first, the next morning. On
my way back, a vague conversation between the office assistant
and a candidate struck me — “Today’s interview is for
OBCs and VH. Candidates in the general category are called the
next day”. I called the registrar to enquire, and he said that I
was listed in the general category. I asked him how this could
be. He called me back and, to make a long story short, I was
asked to go back for the interview the same day.
Between the first and second phone calls, the registrar had
a conversation with his office assistant, an acquaintance of
mine. “He is saying he is VH, how can it be possible? I saw no
problem with his sight. What is this?” After telling me this, my
friend laughed, “You are not VH, you came in looking smart
and seemed to have no disability, how can they put you in VH?
Next time, wear dark glasses, bump into somebody, break
something, fall on something — then they will be convinced.”
Though both of us laughed, I started thinking about the series
of confusions involved in this episode. VH is often equated
with complete blindness; or one has to perform blindness to
prove one’s disability. So, what can I do with my 75 percent
visually handicapped status,
invisible to others?
We often see blind people
encouraged when they do
things ‘normally’ believed to
be impossible or beyond their
abilities. “Oh, simply great, see this, a blind man earns money
by climbing coconut trees and plucking coconuts”; “The
world’s fastest typist is a visually challenged person”; “The success
story of a blind computer engineer”. Indeed, such achievements
should be recognised and appreciated to motivate and
inspire those who cannot perform equally well due to physical,
socio-cultural and economic reasons. However, such performances
by the visually handicapped are often received as
extraordinary and exceptional, even though many of them,
given the opportunity, perform well in their fields.
Nobody equates locomotive disability with the absence of
legs. But, it is often taken for granted that every visually challenged
person should wear dark glasses or use a stick and perform
her disability. This is the dilemma of belonging to
in-between spaces. The better you challenge your disability,
the greater the possibility of being labeled as a faker. What to
do, then? Forget about concessions and reservations.
From
Tehelka Magazine, Vol 5, Issue 42, Dated Oct 25, 2008
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