The inclination towards social service and humanitarian activities is a quality that lets you be at peace with yourself. We are so busy in our day to day lives that slowly we just get so involved that we shut down our senses and rotate in our routine cycle. We forget to relish the blessings. To appreciate the gifts one needs to witness deficiency.
I got a chance to wake up from my slumber of ignorance, when a friend of mine asked me to drop a parcel for his aunt at a special education school. I am a sensitive individual but like many of us I had the tendency to ignore my sensitivity whenever it pricked me to push myself out of the comfort zone, so I thought of ignoring the visit. But as I had promised that person my help, i decided to visit this special education school.
The parcel was to be dropped at a school for mental retardation. It was a boarding school, housing 45 inmates. On first impression the place looked like some secluded bungalow. I was asked to walk to the principal’s office, which was at the far end of the corridor encircling the entire perimeter. While walking past I got the time to take in the place, I now am ashamed of my thoughts then, but I was actually expecting some weirdoes to step out and scare me off. Instead I noticed adult kids were being guided by motherly teachers, some of them were painting, or singing or reading. But what was remarkable was they were all very protective towards each other, helping each other whenever they fumbled or fell. The teacher was supervising at a distance but never volunteered to help, she caught my eye and explained this is what we teach here, coexisting with each other’s support. The sheer flow of love struck me, and it melted something deep within. The normal sane humans don’t even bother to look what others are going through, and here at a school for mental retardation I was relearning the most basic principle of humanity.
And now as I have had my moment of self-realization, I actually like going there, doing petty jobs. Amongst those special people I look for my own sanity, the one that would keep me human.
I got a chance to wake up from my slumber of ignorance, when a friend of mine asked me to drop a parcel for his aunt at a special education school. I am a sensitive individual but like many of us I had the tendency to ignore my sensitivity whenever it pricked me to push myself out of the comfort zone, so I thought of ignoring the visit. But as I had promised that person my help, i decided to visit this special education school.
The parcel was to be dropped at a school for mental retardation. It was a boarding school, housing 45 inmates. On first impression the place looked like some secluded bungalow. I was asked to walk to the principal’s office, which was at the far end of the corridor encircling the entire perimeter. While walking past I got the time to take in the place, I now am ashamed of my thoughts then, but I was actually expecting some weirdoes to step out and scare me off. Instead I noticed adult kids were being guided by motherly teachers, some of them were painting, or singing or reading. But what was remarkable was they were all very protective towards each other, helping each other whenever they fumbled or fell. The teacher was supervising at a distance but never volunteered to help, she caught my eye and explained this is what we teach here, coexisting with each other’s support. The sheer flow of love struck me, and it melted something deep within. The normal sane humans don’t even bother to look what others are going through, and here at a school for mental retardation I was relearning the most basic principle of humanity.
And now as I have had my moment of self-realization, I actually like going there, doing petty jobs. Amongst those special people I look for my own sanity, the one that would keep me human.
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