It's not just on paper

 A few weeks ago, I started what I thought would be a fairly straightforward social media series for a disability inclusion NGO. The idea was simple. Every few days, we'd post a poll under the theme "Let's Break Myths." The questions weren't designed to trick people. They reflected common misconceptions we encounter every day. Questions like: Is physical disability the biggest barrier a person faces? Can people with intellectual disabilities make their own decisions? Does disability automatically limit someone's ability to work, learn, or participate? The intention wasn't to test intelligence. It was to gently challenge assumptions. If anything, the title itself was a clue—the "myth" would probably be the incorrect answer. Given that these polls were posted on an NGO page that has spent years running disability awareness campaigns, I assumed the responses would reflect the collective learning of the follower community. I was wrong. The results w...

Photo courtesy: www.nosweatshakespeare.com Back in 2012, during my sister’s wedding party, we played a fun game – Words of Wisdom . All the guests were given blank paper chits and sketch pens to write down messages for the married couple. The messages needed to be thoughts that would enable the couple to navigate their life together. We received many wise messages, but the one that bagged the prize came from my maternal grandmother – someone we dearly loved and lost later, in 2016. She wrote, “ Life is a comedy of errors. ” Back then, she won the prize but the message truly landed home for me many years later. As a carefree college-going person, I didn't fully understand this description of life. Let’s just say I was too naïve, and she was too wise. Looking back, while we knew of some of the struggles in her life, maybe there were countless internal battles that she never exposed us to. Perhaps that was the 'comedy of errors' she was referring to. Cut to today.  Life has un...

Photo Courtesy: www.nature.com I have a hunch. A solid one. Something which others don’t believe. Something which most of the times, even I don’t believe. But it’s proved its existence once too many times. Especially, when things are about to go south, when things don’t seem just right, when things are not going to work out in the long run. Like a conversation that feels slightly off, a decision that carries a weight I can’t explain, a circumstance which looks fine on the surface but doesn’t feel right underneath. It’s like the Murphy’s law is embedded within me – thinking of possibilities of things that could go wrong based on subtle but clear patterns – at the subconscious level. Nothing concrete to argue about. Just enough to notice and worry about. How does this guide me through life? It prompts. It nudges. Sometimes, it insists. I mention it casually to others, almost testing it out loud, and they dismiss it like it’s nothing. I let their certainty override mine. It feels...