Dancing with Life Read Free

room would erupt in song. But during our various send-off parties I limited myself to just a single song as I was afraid that I would not be able to stand in one place for so long. I had started experiencing problems with my sense of balance and the last place I would want to make this public was at a party thrown by my husband’s employers and peers.
    It took me some time to get used to New Delhi, not only as a metropolis so different from Mumbai but for an entirely different reason. I knew where all the washrooms were located in the areas I used to frequent in Mumbai, and I had more or less learnt how to handle myself in case I had an emergency in public. Now in Delhi, I had to start the whole process all over again. And on top of this I had to find a job with flexible hours. My friends helped out with the addresses and contact details of some software firms in Delhi-NCR and although I would have liked to continue my career as a software professional, I knew there was no way I would be able to manage with the strict deadlines and high levels of work-related stress. I thought it would be more convenient to work with an NGO or take up freelance writing assignments to keep myself occupied.
    At this stage, I began to observe how Delhi treated those citizens who had mobility issues like me or were in some other way physically challenged. While the government of the day had installed facilities that were disabled-friendly at a few public places, most places were completely out of bounds. I also now became aware of how mobility-challenged people, once an invisible minority to me, coped with getting around the city. While some walked unsteadily leaning on a cane or stick, others relied on the kindness of strangers or friends. I started to map the city for disabled-friendly buses, trains and access paths in malls, buildings and my children’s new school. Unconsciously I was preparing for the future for I could foresee that with my case progressively worsening, I would have a difficult time ahead in Delhi.
    Now that these issues concerned me on a personal level I started paying particular attention to citizen campaigns that asked the government to make the steps of the state-run buses lower in order to make it easy for the elderly and the physically challenged to get on board. I had never thought the steps of these buses could be made any lower. Now that I too found boarding high-floor buses a challenge, I could clearly understand and resonate with such campaigns. Thank God for concerned citizens and public activism.
    I had heard of the Spastics Society of India’s Delhi chapter * and knew it was working actively in this area and had many success stories to share. I thought perhaps I could apply to work with them. Since it was an organization for those suffering from cerebral palsy (a group of neurological disorders that affect body movement and muscle coordination), I knew the office would be disabled-friendly with proper ramps and even disabled-friendly washrooms. I thought it would be the perfect place to work for a few hours every day and on days I felt too weak to walk I could work from home. I applied for a job and went for a couple of interviews but all they had on offer were full-time jobs and certainly none with flexible timings.
    The next best thing besides working at the Spastics Society I thought was taking up writing as a profession. While in Mumbai I had written a couple of articles for the magazine Life Positive (published from Mumbai) and had enjoyed the experience of meeting and writing about people whom I found inspiring. I sent an e-mail to the Editor-in-Chief Suma Varughese along with my resume enquiring if there were any job openings in Delhi. Serendipitously, Suma happened to be visiting Delhi the day she received my enquiry. I met Suma and told her that I was looking for a job with flexible timings. She heard me out and said I could work from home and only needed to visit the office once a week for