For the past few weeks, a deaf girl who had connected with me on one of the social networks was requesting me to meet her. She was going through a rough phase in her personal life and wanted to seek my advice. I was a little skeptical though; skeptical of my own limitations in being able to help her. Also, I am not yet adept at understanding sign language, I knew the communication was going to be difficult. And yet, I did not know how to refuse her innocent request.
After weeks of giving myself excuses of being busy, I finally visited her today. Not just her, but her mother too extended a warm welcome. The girl had apparently seen a newspaper article of mine way back in October last year and had kept the newspaper cutting right in our living room. Sometimes, the love you receive from strangers can just get overwhelming, to say the least.
She told me her story. Born partially deaf, she got married to an abled-man. He was unable to adjust to her disability and left her after an year. An year later, she met a man who was completely deaf and married him. At first, things went fine. The man was working at Sahara. But with the Subroto Roy scandal, he lost his job. The shock took away all his willingness to live and he started cursing everything around him. The girl tried to deal with his depression and took all his frustrations on her. But the man still felt she was an additional burden. Every time, she got close to him, he would get furious. Eventually, he asked her to leave his house. It has been months she is at her mother’s place.
She asked me what should she do? It is her second marriage and she wants to make it work, but not at the cost of self-respect.
Giving advice to someone, especially when you can just not relate to the situation on a personal level can be tough. I do not know whatever I said made any sense. Nevertheless, I just hope things get better for her.
Thinking how difficult it is for a person with disability to adjust to changes in life, be it personal or professional..
Disha's Writings 