I recently watched Aamir Khan’s new movie SItaare Zameen Par, and was transported to a long forgotten chapter in my life. There’s something about ‘Sitaare Zameen par’ that makes you believe in the inherent goodness of the world. That there’s still light at the end of the tunnel. That, after all the darkness, you can still find the brighter side. And that being kind, hopeful, and having a heart full of love and laughter are still among humanity’s greatest traits. That lesson was taught to me when I was barely 13~15 year old kid.

When I was studying in boarding school, I had volunteered to spend two hours twice in a week, volunteering to go to Cheshire Homes in Dehradun, as part of SUPW activity. Like Gulshan (Amir Khans Character in the movie), my motive was not to help the inmates of the Home. The main attraction was, that we were allowed to leave the close confines of the school and cycle our way to the Cheshire Home which was just a couple of kilometers away. We would travel in a group in our uniform, but we felt that could be cycling at our homes with our friends unsupervised and feeling that we are back in the real world, if only for a couple of hours. In variably we would take a longer route, with detours to break guavas and grapefruits from orchards in the way.

The two hours we would spend at Cheshire Home would be spent talking to the residents and helping them with tasks assigned to us. Normally it would entail forming them into a choir and teach them dhesbhakti songs (patriotic songs) to be sung when various dignitaries were visiting or just play simple games with them like throwing a ball around.

I remember a girl called Manju, who would hide from us and pounce on us from behind slapping our butts very hard. We were terrified of her, because she never held back in her slaps and it was always followed by peels of laughter in which invariable every resident would join. I remember I would avoid her but the staff once told me that she looks forward to our visit, because this is the only game she can play, we should allow her to hit us. When we talked about Manju, we would always call her ‘Pagal’ (That’s why Glushan’s dialogue in the movie “Aare pagal ko pagal nahi boolaynge to kya boolaynge” made me laugh, but also had me cringing, at my own follies).

Another resident I remember was named Bahadhur. He was an old man suffering from neuro-muscular and developmental disabilities. His family had dumped him to the Cheshire home, after duping him of all his inheritance. He was better than most resident in terms of abilities. He would talk to us for hours about his village, his family and his home. How there was no future for him anywhere else but as the leader of the residents. Remember this was the 80’s and there was not much awareness of these things. Concept of facilities for physically and mentally challenged people were non-existent. Today 35 years later, I remember the hopelessness in his voice and the infinite patience he displayed when talking or organizing his fellow residents. His was the first lesson I got about kindness and how privileged we as a group were.

In the hindsight those 4 hours in a week for a period of three years have always stayed with me. For them there was no past, no tomorrow. The sheer joy of just getting a halwa would bring smiles to their faces. They lived in the present and celebrated it, because that was all they feel and remember. My frustration in the mistakes they made while singing, mixing up the words or just simply singing out of tune, would always turn to amusement because they would be just happy to have finished the song. I remember one of the function when they were supposed to sing two songs but sang them both one after the other without pause. We were angry with them, but could not stay angry, because they clapped the loudest after finishing. The sheer joy on their faces would be amusing to us. Another dialogue from the movie still resonates “Jinka Dil itna bada hai, unme kya kami ho sakti hai”. Their time spent with me left me a kinder person with a big heart. They taught me that one might be facing the weakest moment of one’s life – down, humiliated, hopeless – but they taught me to give it one more shot and find joy wherever you are in life. So ultimately the movie was about hope and an unabashed celebration of life.

Yet today it took a movie for me to remember them. On an average 15% of world population suffers from physical and mental disabilities. That would translate to more that 20 Crores Indian, who require care and help- require looking after. I request you the reader to think of us when we were kids- we all needed looking after and if we live long enough we would require ‘looking after’ again. That is nearly 50 % of our population that needs looking after, but are we doing enough for them. How many of our kids know about Group Captain Leonard Cheshire (a highly decorated Royal Air Force Bomber pilot, was an observer at the nuclear bombing of Nagasaki on 9th August 1945. After this searing experience, he decided to devote his life to set up homes for the disabled, and terminally ill citizens of the UK . His foundation has branches in most major countries)or of Mithu Alur founder of Spastic Society of India, who educated herself from UK to take care of her daughter-suffering from Cerebral Palsy. Because in 1970’s there was no proper schools for children with disabilities in India. Her society has done steller work in helping the residents and spread awareness for the disabled.

Today I urge you to look around you, and notice them, care for them because like in the movie it is they who are teaching us, not us teaching them.