My extra extraordinary day started with a run at the stadium to a recording of Buddhist chants, I thought what a lovely way to start my day. At my office a friend of mine was celebrating his birthday, I asked him how he wanted to celebrate his birthday and he told me that he wanted to do two things; 1) to have a gathering in the office after work and 2) he wanted to give some clothing to a disabled boy. I questioned him further about the latter and he told me a really heart wrenching story. There is a severely disabled boy who is mentally and physically disabled, he had polio when he was young and consequently he could not use his legs. His parents chain him to the wall when they both go to work and he is left all alone chained all day like an animal. Many organisations have tried to help with the situation, by giving the parents money, but the situation has not improved. Organisations have also offered to give seed money for the parent to help start a small shop from home so they can look after their son, but the parents have turned the offer down.
I try to remain objective because there are always two sides to the story and I try to see if from the parent’s point of view, they have to earn money and there are no facilities for this boy to go to and no carers are provided here, this is not the UK where every social need is pampered to and some that are not needed are also provided. But when I join my friend on his visit to give two new sets of clothing really I am very shocked, he is conscious and lively and understands that we are bringing him gifts. He is wearing only a pair of dirty boxer shorts and a equally dirty t-shirts and he is filthy, we cloth him and give him some fruit and exchange words with the parents, I feel uncomfortable, upset and very foreign but I bite my lip and keep composed for now. The parents are willing to talk about setting up a shop.
We stopped off for some drinks on the way back to the office and my work friends asked me how I feel, I reply that I feel sad and start to cry, I am really so sad that I have no reservations about crying in front of my work friends.
We return to the office and to my surprise a group of girls from my office have already started cooking a delicious birthday feast and the music is set up in the meeting room, which co-incidentally used to be my dancing room as this is the first house I lived in, random. When all work friends are gathered a cake is brought out and candles blown. He cuts the cake and then proceeds to feed a small piece to each of his sisters and friends who in return feed him, what a nice idea. Of course there is dancing and then towards the end of the night it is time to open his presents.
And this is what he received; an ornament of a pink hand with a ring being placed on the wedding finger, several picture frames, a bunch of plastic flowers, several Hindu god figures relating to love and marriage and several other things which all related to marriage and love. It was like a pound shop super sweep (with all due respect, very kind and thoughtful). It seems his friends all had one thing on their mind they want him to get married.
I returned home feeling pretty hyperactive and thoughtful from the day, I logged onto facebook and got chatting to a friend who is a Radio Jockey, he was presenting a local Nepali radio song request show at the time and I requested one on line, but that was not possible so I told him I would call but with 10 minutes until the show ended he called me and before I knew it I was live on the radio talking Nepali – eek. Yes I made mistakes, plenty, but what a fun experience it was.
That night I only slept for four hours because a million different things were spinning through my head, but one thing that has not left me and never will is that poor boy chained in his house.
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