Recipe for inspiration

D.K.Vaid
Maricel Apatan is so full of hope that one would love to meet her in person. But that is not possible, as the 22 year old life chaser works as a Hotel Chef in Manila. Knowing about her, however, is possible. And that is what I did. She speaks a language which has been the language of heroes and doers. Like all achievers, her belief lies in an unflinching hope and faith in the abundance of possibilities. ‘You dream and work hard and believe that nothing is impossible.’ She, however, provides a supplementary as well, to this generally tested, still scarcely practiced, magic of ‘Dreaming and Hard Working’. ‘And pray’, she adds softly. She has all the reason to put her faith in prayers. She after all, has looked into the eyes of death from a distance which could barely be in centimeters.
It was in September 2000 when she was attacked by five machete wielding men who were forcing Marcel’s family off their land. (So, this forcible land grabbing exists in other parts of the world too. With rise in real estate worth around our towns, the scene here is getting harsher by the day). She was only eleven, but had the cleverness to pretend death before the marauders. Later, with nothing but her courage as transport, she negotiated an arduous and tricky track to reach a hospital. The death was defeated, but only after paying a price. The doctors could not save her hands. Her beautiful arms, now, will terminate at wrists. That is when her struggle begins and we get a recipe for inspiration.
Struggling to cope up with her disability, she had to depend entirely on her mom. Mothers, in our part of the world, too manage the affairs of their physically challenged children with patience, compassion, skill and sensitivity. Mothers are mothers and happen to be similarly cut-out everywhere on this planet. But, unfortunately, so are the school children, as well. When she returned to school, teasing by classmates often left her in tears. It happens exactly the same way over here too. As in our society, so in our schools, there is a common tendency of scoffing at those who happen to be incomplete in their limbs or deficient in some faculty. We, the descendants of a great civilization, read our scriptures with a frenzied devotion but willingly fail to respect our Ashtavakars.
Filipino schoolians may behave like those of ours but, mercifully, their governance mechanism, their civil society and their religious groups are alive to the needs of the disabled. Soon Maricel Apatan, the child without a set of hands, is arranged to be put in a rehabilitation centre called as House with No Steps. This is a training centre for people with disabilities. She learned there how to write and do her chores and more importantly, came in terms with her disability. A new faith evolved. She says, ‘I believe I had an important mission in life because I survived the attack.’
The ever increasing number of disabled and maimed beggars in our towns should be the reason enough for us to have our rehabilitation centres. Those of the differently challenged who have their own homes and families, need also to be put in Special Schools/Centres to acquire skills as per their capacity. Normal schools will only remain an apology for this class.
Maricel eventually finished high school and then obtained a two year hotel and restaurant management diploma. When managers at the Edsa Shangri La Hotel saw her on television, they hired her as part of their hotel’s Care for People Project. That again is unlike us. How many in J&K Corporate world have any idea of Corporate Social Responsibility? A state which claims its tourism industry as a flag ship industry providing a reasonable support to the hotel industry, would be doing good to tax payers’ money; if it contemplates to advise the concerned to devise some Care for People Projects.
Maricel, the Chef is very good at decorating cheese cake and pastry. She uses her wrists for the purpose. As she grips a chef’s knife tightly between her hip and left inner elbow and uses her left wrist to delicately slice grapes and strawberries; she hums gently. The arrangement of fruits on the cake, blueberry fillings and the elegant chocolate curl on the top is perfect. The hope to attain this perfection and to subsequently dish out their recipes is hers; the means are not. Means for all such physically challenged have necessarily to come from the State or the Society or both.
Many in J&K State are waiting to attain this perfection and to subsequently dish out their recipes. But the means are shamefully inadequate. Few NGOs like J&K Samaj Kalyan Kendra are doing a fine job. But lack of adequate efforts and financial support from the government or from those who have yet to awake to their social responsibility, is a great deterrent both to keep going and to conceive new designs of training and education as per the need.
We have our local heroes too. Many of our own physically challenged youth can be seen eking out a respectable livelihood through small rural crafts. Imagine what they can do if they could be specially trained for better callings. We may then have not to look to Sweden or Philipine for a hero for his/her recipe for inspiration.
(The Columnist with his pen name as Darshan Darshi is a  Dogri writer and a Sahitya Akademi Awardee)

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