Wheels of Destiny

We are eager to travel far and wide. Every day, we dream of escaping the rut of daily life. Our bucket lists are brimming with destinations to explore. But what about those who are not able to escape the cards life has dealt to them? 

In February, I got a chance to visit the Association of People With Disability (APD) centre in Bangalore to understand their work. Below is a summary of the same.

Established in 1959 by Ms. N.S. Hema, a time when disability was considered a disease, so the idea of even recognizing the challenges of a disabled person was not under consideration. During that time, Ms. Hema, herself battling polio, showed immense courage and dedication to set up an institution that is transforming the lives of so many people even today.

She has authored a book, Wheels of Destiny, sharing her journey.

The centre which serves every type of recognised disability is well maintained, with a school, physiotherapy centre, workshop & nursery. Their scope of work touches all the aspects we can imagine in the life of a person with disability (PwD) and their caregivers. They call it the Life Cycle Approach, designed to address the needs of a person with disabilities at every stage of their life.

Their school, Shraddhanjali, highlights the importance of inclusive education with all kinds of kids coming together to study and helping each other, thus tackling this stigma early on. They even train & sensitize teachers in other government schools as a part of their collaboration with the government.

 

Source: https://www.apd-india.org/ 

The physiotherapists & other staff were warm and shared their methodologies and how it has brought relief to the kids and the parents. We learnt about various therapies like foot reflexology, hydrotherapy, speech therapy, psychological, cognitive & behaviour therapy, etc. 

  

The organization extensively works for people with spinal cord injuries, and they have a rehabilitation program called Cot-to-Community. They encourage the handicapped to get included in the community. Moreover, they also have a Rehabilitation-on-Wheel initiative started during Covid with corporate help for reaching out to people in remote areas. 

By providing assistive & adaptive mobility aids (all made by PwDs in their workshop) for daily living as well as vocational training in BPO, horticulture, etc, APD is committed to bringing equity & dignity in the lives of people with disabilities.  

Transit via Hong Kong - Sept 2024

Last year, I got a chance to visit Hong Kong, the city with the most skyscrapers. But my interest in the country had been more because of its history as we bore the brunt of the same colonialist power. 

In the 18th and early 19th centuries, British demand for Chinese goods such as silk, porcelain, and tea was so much that trading them with China was causing them to pay more silver than they were earning. Not only that, there were strict restrictions on who the British could trade with in China as all foreign trade had to go via the Hong merchants.

To tilt the balance of trade in their favour, British minds thought of exporting opium, an addictive drug from the opium plant. It made Indians grow and pack opium along the Ganga river belt and started pushing it in China. When the Chinese rulers banned it in 1796, they continued the trade illegally. 

As both parties refused to back down, tensions began to heighten, eventually leading to the first Opium War in 1839, which was won by the British. As part of the treaty of Nanking, China had to cede the island of Hong Kong and also pay for the opium it had seized and destroyed.

However, the British wanted more. Being traders, they wanted open access to China for trade apart from a legal permit to trade opium. This led to the 2nd Opium War in 1856. The Chinese lost again, this time the area north of Hong Kong Island called Kowloon.

As the British continued to expand their colonial boundaries, a lease was signed at a special convention between Britain and China, which granted Britain the territories above Kowloon for 99 years, now known as the New Territories. 

On 1 July 1997, Britain officially transferred authority over Hong Kong to China. Knowing a bit of the history makes the travel so much more interesting than merely watching the landmarks and taking selfies. I took the historic Peak Tram to Victoria Peak. Commenced in May 1888 by the British, it was the first cable funicular in Asia. As it rolls on to on the top, one can see numerous skyscrapers over the city’s rugged terrain dotting the skyline. 

I found the city extremely safe and convenient to navigate, with a robust public transportation system and unlimited high-speed internet connectivity. All this, coupled with its cultural diversity and affordable cost of living, makes it a great place for education and career.

Talking about public transportation, I have to mention The Star Ferry's ferry crossings at Victoria Harbour between Hong Kong Island and Kowloon. I didn’t know until now that The Star Ferry was started by Dorabjee Naorojee Mithaiwala, a Parsee cook who began a ferry service across Victoria Harbour with his steamboat, the Morning Star, in 1880. A value-for-money ferry ride with amazing sights and perspectives of Hong Kong City. My eyes chanced upon Dukling - the last authentic junk boat available for the public in Hong Kong

I crossed over to Kowloon at Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront in the evening for the show, Symphony of Lights, to end the visit to this vibrant cosmopolitan city. 

Beyond Bucket Lists - GALAPAGOS!

We travel to different places for different reasons. Many people have their own bucket list of places to visit before they die. Many want to see as much of the world as possible. Now, with Instagram taking centre-stage in social media, stunning photographs and videos have encouraged many people to explore places beyond their homeland.

I must have been in school when we first came across the Galapagos Islands while reading Darwin’s theory of Evolution by Natural Selection. I wondered what he saw on those islands led him to derive such an important theory. How did he even manage to reach so far, away from the mainland on those islands? What inspired him way back in the 1800s to undertake such a risky travel? All these questions created a mysterious aura about the islands. Will I ever be able to reach there and experience those things?

And I did get an opportunity to explore the Galapagos!

The Galápagos Islands are a cluster of islands formed due to repeated volcanic activity over millions of years in the Pacific Ocean. Lying about 1,000km off the coast of Ecuador, it has provided isolated space to diverse species of plants and animals, many of which are not found anywhere else. 

What are those species? Well, we saw the Giant tortoises, sea lions, equatorial penguins, marine and land iguanas, blue-footed booby birds, and many other land, marine, and bird species.

And I got to see the finches, birds that Darwin observed on the islands with various beak shapes that led him to postulate that finches evolved based on available food sources — long, pointed beaks for snatching insects while broad, blunt beaks work for cracking seeds and nuts.

What struck me the most was the fact that these birds and animals do not seem to know the concept of fear and suspicion as they have lived and evolved without any fear of large predators. So you can walk beside a sea lion or an iguana on the beach or over the volcanic rocks or even sit beside the nesting birds without them scurrying away to hide. In fact, some are curious enough to approach you to have a good look at you. The experience is surreal.

Barring a few islands, the government has been continuously striving to keep these islands free of introduced and invasive species. Thanks to their control and international interest, the islands are still pristine. 

Not just on the land, even in the waters, I did not find the Galapagos wildlife aggressive. We did see a few reef sharks, but they were busy with themselves, staying away from people. The sealions are playful, so we need to be careful around them, but they mean no harm. 

In fact, snorkelling became the highlight of our trip as it gave us an excellent opportunity to view the immensely colourful and wonderful marine life up close and have a much better understanding of the Galapagos' ecosystems. 

I can only feel grateful to the universe for conspiring this opportunity for me.

FOR PICTURES visit - https://www.instagram.com/step_one_24 

Beauty - deep down there!

When,
awesome feels amiss,
beautiful is barely enough,
spectacular falls short,
and incredible is inadequate.

Step by step with never-ending turns,
I enter deeper into the Carlsbad Caverns.
How much further down? I do not know.

But it's getting darker and quieter below,

until the darkness muddles your sense of space
and the loudest sound is that of your own breath!

750 ft below the ground
Stupefied by what I have found.
Where I stand now was once an inland sea,
along whose edges grew a reef of sponges and algae.
When land and water rallied to and fro,
leaving behind huge gaps or caverns as we now know.
Then nature set itself to work, with water as chisel,
drip by drip, each drop casting its own spell.
Embellishing  the hollows with milky pearls,
intricately sculpted columns that stand tall like earls.

Huge chandeliers of glistening limestone spears
and so much more were put together in a million years.

Even after hours, my eyes were wide with awe & wonder,
Like watching a theatrical extravaganza, above & yonder!

Note from nps.gov website: The extensive caverns of Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico, USA, lie in the foothills of the Guadalupe Mountains in the south-eastern corner of the state. This large underground system formed over 4 million years ago and consists of more than 100 limestone caves within the national park. These caves exhibit worldwide significance due to their size, their unique origin, and the abundant diversity and beauty of the decorative rock formations.