Changing perception

Many myths were broken and lessons learnt from the experience of hosting three young boys from Gulbarga who visited and stayed with us in Mysore for three days.

They had all come on a sightseeing trip. Two of them were visiting the cultural capital of the state for the first time. It was the third one who caught my attention and the two others who were his friends who taught me a few lessons in life.

My soulmate and I went to pick Rohan Kumar and his friends from the railway station.
The moment I saw him, I thought ‘My God! he is really good looking with those strong jaws, a determined mouthline, a deep forehead and solid biceps.’ He struggled to get into the car with his long prosthetic legs and his walking stick. On reaching home, asked whether they would like to be put up in separate rooms, Rohan categorically stated that all of them would prefer to stay in one room. It was when he came out without his prosthetic legs and crutches that reality hit me hard. He was literally walking on his knees and from a strapping six-footer he was reduced to less than half his size.

There was no trace of bitterness in his voice when he talked. He narrated how he had almost been deserted by both his parents and it was his grandmother who was taking care of him. She at 73, worked in a clinic in their hometown to augment the income.
On Day 2, the three boys went out in the morning on a sightseeing trip. But within an hour they were back. The reason was that the belt that Rohan was wearing was giving him trouble and he was not able to continue with the journey. There was not a trace of resentment on the faces of his two friends, Sudeep Gandhi and Kishore Patil. Not only that, Kishore went out to get the belt repaired with the help of one of his friends in Mysore. I was thinking how lucky Rohan was to find friends like these two. I heard that back in Gulbarga, they always took turns to go and pick him up from his room and take him to the college.

For someone from old Mysore area, Gulbarga conjures up visions of a hot and backward place, and in my friends’ circle, it was also referred to as a ‘punishment transfer’ city. But the love Sudeep, whose forefathers originally hail from Ludhiana in Punjab, has for his hometown was indeed very touching. From Mysore, the boys travelled to Ooty and back, but  Sudeep’s mantra was, “Ooty is beautiful but I prefer my Gulbarga.” After all, it is natural to be fond of the place one is born in, and it immediately struck me that it was meaningless to be judgemental about a place or people from one’s own perception.