“Don’t call me a differently-abled person. Call me Siddharth,” says Siddharth Jayakumar, when he is referred to as a person with disabilities.
He is quick to add that he does not want people to stop looking at him as a disabled person, but rather, focus on things he can do. “Allow me to grow on the basis of my strengths,” he says. He is one of the voices of the recently-released Gifted, a book authored by Sudha Menon and V.R. Ferose, and packed with personal stories of people with disabilities.
“I let these amazing people tell their stories, and I recorded it for the book in their own voices,” Ms. Menon says.
While embarking on the journey of meeting and recording their life stories, Ms. Menon had one fear: how to speak about things that are so taken for granted.
“Initially, we tiptoed around so many things, mainly because media tends to highlight only the negative picture. We need more stories of triumph to emerge,” she says. She was speaking to The Hindu on the sidelines of her book launch in Chennai, held recently.
In the pressing need to bring to the fore issues surrounding accessibility, what often gets pushed back are the happy stories, stories of surpassing adversity. “I think we do have a long way to go, in terms of providing equal opportunities; but also, why slot people into boxes, based on their disabilities,” Ms. Menon says.
It is important to break the barriers that media has inadvertently helped perpetuate, she adds. “For instance, why do we always assume that persons with disabilities can perform only particular jobs,” she asks.
Mr. Jayakumar, who has cerebral palsy, is a banker, thanks to open-minded employers, who looked past his disabilities and took his talent into account. “It is also important to raise your children without them being made to feel different,” Mr. Jayakumar says.
Malvika Iyer of Chennai, who is also among the 15 featured in the book, lost her limbs when a grenade she picked up exploded. Multiple surgeries later, she went on to become the State topper in Class X exams.
