Logo of Everyone is good at something

aasman

aasman
nag , chattisgarh

Aasman Nag (32) sits in his wheelchair, facing the camera, in the front and centre of a long room. The wheelchair is on a long strip of mustard yellow carpet that runs down the length of the room. On either side of Aasman sit several rows of young boys in plastic chairs. The boys on the left sit in green chairs, and the ones on the right, in blue chairs. Aasman has a broad forehead and short hair thinning on top. He wears a rose-pink shirt with sleeves rolled up to the elbows, and ash-grey trousers. The floor has polished cream tiles and the beige ceiling has long rows of dark brown ceiling fans. The boys wear T-shirts and shirts paired with shorts and trousers in different colours.
Mid shot of Aasman behind a table with a bright pinkish red table-top. Behind him there is a parrot green wall rack with books lining the shelves. Aasman wears a white round-necked sweatshirt with the words BLUE ARMY printed on the front in large black capitals. He is looking into an open book in front of him on the table. He has pushed up his sleeves till the forearm, displaying a wristwatch with a black strap on his left wrist and a thin silver bracelet on his right. His right hand is flicking up the right-hand page and the fingers of his left hand are raising the top two left-hand pages.
Side shot of Aasman in his wheelchair, sitting in a room with wooden bunk beds. The beds are painted in a geometrical pattern of red and yellow with blue side panels on the top bunk. All the mattresses are covered with a turquoise blue bedsheet printed with large motifs of white, black and yellow leaves of different shapes. Two boys sit side by side on one of the beds in the background, facing the camera. Aasman wears ash-grey trousers and a shirt in faded grey and white checks with sleeves rolled up to the elbows. With his right arm raised and fingers folded, he is silently communicating with a boy sitting cross-legged on a bed to the right. The boy, wearing a red T-shirt and black sweatpants, is holding his right elbow with his left arm and he has raised his right arm with two fingers forming a V.
Overhead shot of Aasman, wearing his white “Blue Army” sweatshirt with black trousers, sitting in his wheelchair in front of a light brown wooden table in a room with a leaf-green floor. He is looking at the screen of a desktop computer while his hands rest on the black keyboard placed on a pull-out tray beneath the table. Also on the table are a pair of scissors with orange handles, a black mouse on a turquoise blue mouse-pad, a white remote device, and a white switchboard with five plug points, two of them with brown plugs in the sockets.
Aasman, wearing his rose-pink shirt and ash-grey trousers, sits in his wheelchair in front of a single-storeyed building with cream walls. The building has a sapphire blue board over the entrance with white lettering in Hindi, proclaiming it to be Saksham-1 a residential institution for disabled boys. On either side of the entrance are broad, gently sloping ramps with steel handrails. The two halves of the black front gate, which roll on castors, have been drawn wide apart.
Icon to view photos in full screen

“I learn something new every day. I dream of becoming a motivational speaker”

Perhaps it is his love of literature that makes Aasman Nag (32) from Chhattisgarh so captivated by aphorisms. He writes quotes – original and borrowed – in his diary and on the whiteboard in his office, and sometimes waxes metaphorical when he speaks.
 
“The two wheels of my wheelchair are the chariot that traces my progress from earth to sky,” he tells our EGS interviewer. “One day I will justify my name Aasman [meaning sky], stepping onto the ladder to the limitless sky.” Aasman is the Office Warden at Saksham in Dantewada (which readers may be familiar with from our recent story of Prince Yalam). Saksham, located in the 150-acre Education City, caters to disabled adivasi children.
 
Born into an agrarian family in Kuakonda village of Dantewada, Aasman grew up speaking Halwi, the language of his Halwa adivasi tribe. His father Ramprasad Nag still works as a farmer and his mother Pramila Nag is a housewife. He was just one and a half years old when a high fever (perhaps from poliomyelitis) caused paralysis from the waist down. “The doctors said I would not recover,” he says, “but my parents never let me feel I was different. My elder brother Ashok and sister Asmati, especially, became my pillars.”
 
Aasman started school late. While other children played outside, he remained indoors. “Some students would laugh at my condition,” he recalls. “But I also found some real friends – Tirmu Ram, Ajay Rana, and Ankit Singh Bhadoria. We still keep in touch.” He persevered, eventually earning a Master’s degree in English Literature from Govt. Danteshwari P.G. College in 2020. “I’ve always loved Shakespeare,” he says. “I like his plays more than his poetry. There’s so much life in them.”
 
Dantewada, part of the larger Bastar region, is often known to the outside world for its conflict – a place where Naxalite insurgency, poverty, and political neglect intersect. Aasman recalls those turbulent years: “Our village was not directly affected by the violence, but we were witnesses to the fear, the silence.” To bring education to these fragile zones, the government set up makeshift bamboo schools which it called ‘Pota Cabins’ (portable structures designed to be easily dismantled if violence erupted). In 2011 the ₹100-crore Education City project transformed adivasi children’s access to school, and Saksham was born in 2014 within this vision.
 
Aasman got his Person with Disability (PwD) certificate only in 2013, at the age of 20. “My parents didn’t even know such a certificate existed,” he says. “When I learned about it, I myself applied. That year, on the International Day of Persons with Disabilities [December 3], I met District Collector K.C. Dev Senapati. He offered me a position at Saksham.” As Warden, he manages the school records and student information, earning ₹10,000 a month, along with food and lodging. “My contribution to my family is small, but I do what I can,” he says. “More than anything, I want to be independent.” His elder brother and one younger brother work as temporary schoolteachers in Dantewada district and another younger brother has a government job in the medical sector.
 
“Coming to Saksham changed my life,” Aasman says. “Everyone here has their own story, their own struggle. I learn something new every day.” One such story is of his colleague Raju Mandawi, a former Naxalite who surrendered. “He transformed his zeal to come back to the mainstream,” Aasman says. “It inspires me – how people can choose differently, even after walking into the fire.”
 
It is the determination of his deaf-mute students that leaves the deepest imprint on Aasman. “When I watch them,” he says, “I realise the power of the human will. They communicate with such clarity, with their hands, their expressions, their eyes. Their silence is not emptiness. It’s filled with a kind of strength that speaks louder than words.”
 
Aasman enjoys listening to 1990s Hindi songs, and writing motivational quotes in Hindi and English on a whiteboard in his office. “Since college, I’ve liked keeping a diary. Now I write to inspire others too,” he says. Some quotes from his diary transferred to the board: “What will be the meaning of life if we don’t have the courage to keep trying?” And “When writing the story of your life, don’t let anyone else hold the pen!”
 
Saksham superintendent Pramod Karma continues to support and encourage him. “I love being at Saksham,” Aasman says. “I go home only during long holidays. This place has become my world. And from here, I can dream.” One of his dreams is to be a motivational speaker. “One day, I want to speak to a big audience. Share what I’ve learned – not just about struggle, but about rising.”

Photos:

Vicky Roy

©Copyrights - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/