NOT A YET ANOTHER 'OPEN LETTER’…..

Greetings to my fellow brethren,

Well, I wish not to reveal my name for undisclosable reasons. But what is there in a name?? Let me call
myself ‘DEVDUTT’. Yes, I consider myself a gift of God on this earth, so are you all. The only difference
being that He was too careless during my ‘manufacturing’ process that my limbs got misplaced. The
result? The label on me! Yes, the ‘wonderful’ tag that you people have tied to me- “PHYSICALLY
CHALLENGED”!! Some also take freedom to categorise me as “DIFFERENTLY ABLED” though Iam still
pondering over what is so ‘different’ that you people see in me.

You people would have already gone through a hundred letters addressed ‘An Open Letter to…..’ this n
that & so on. Thanks to the social networking sites. Don’t worry, this is not yet another. In fact this letter
is not addressed to all but to very few specific people who will realize it as they read this. Iam writing
this not for your sympathy. This is just to express my views on certain issues concerning me in this
society. You may ‘label’ them again as rave outbursts of a frustrated ‘differently abled’ lad. But atleast
one among you would understand what me & scores of others like me have always wanted to blast out.

I wouldn’t have had to write anything like this if it was not for that long bearded ,spectacled self
proclaimed gentleman whom I confronted with in the town bus today morning. He was so keen on
showing off his generosity that he wanted his fellow passengers to lift me into the bus & seat me on
the special seat reserved for people like me. The result?? A whole bus of curious passengers staring at
this ‘DIFFERENTLY ABLED’ to show their sympathy. Some wanted to find out which part of my body’s
mechanics went wrong . Some wanted to give me that pathetic look so that they can be ‘proud’ of
themselves for empathizing with me. As a child I loved watching animals strolling back & forth behind
big iron bars in zoos .But this bus incident has made me realize what it takes to have a hundred curious
eyes digging themselves into your privacy. Now , I do pity for the caged animals.

Doesn’t it seem awkward to stare at someone like me just as if you are seeing some strange creature
you have never seen before ?? Do you think that even after 25 difficult years of walking with these
stubborn legs of mine , I wouldn’t be able to manage to get into the bus on my own?? Do you think that
your sympathy is going to give me the energy & strength to lead a better life?? If that is what you have
thought all these time, kindly dump all those thoughts at this very moment. And it is nothing else but
this that I want to convey to you people out there through this letter.

Whenever you stare at me, whenever you deny me the freedom to carry on myself in public, please
understand that you are not etching another sentence in the ‘Good Deeds” register of yours. But it is
my pride, my dignity & my confidence in myself that gets hurt. I grew up reading about the famous lives
of Franklin Roosevelt & Tanni Grey Thompson. While you ate bread, butter & jam as a kid and studied
trigonometry & vectors at school, my mom & dad fed me with confidence everyday- breakfast, lunch &
dinner. More than my books, my teachers at school taught me how to stand up & walk on my own like
others. They made me forget my disability and made me a self reliant social being. I am like each and

I read , I write, I browse the net, I login to facebook everyday, I hangout with my close buddies, I cook, I
do everything you people do. So when you look at me as a pathetic lad struggling to live a life in this ‘all
normal’ world, it does hurt a bit inside. Yes, I do need your help but not the sympathy driven emotic
responses when you come across people like me. The best favour that you can do me is to see me as
any other man. Help me help myself. Probably a helping hand when I stumble in my gait, at times an
offer for a seat in a crowded bus or make a way in a busy crowd, these are things that you can do for me
rather than that ‘sympathetic’ look on your face or the curious ‘which-part-is-problematic’ stare.

Yes, as you have categorized people like me, we are CHALLENGED- physically. I have grown up over it,
indeed I have taken it as a challenge and I am living it- happily. It is upto you brothers & sisters to help
me live it the same way.

Let me end with a plea. Please do not give an instance for another guy like me to write yet another
letter like this. Facebook is already flooded with ‘open letters’ !!

With love to all,

‘Devdutt’

(-Dr.Aravind Menon)