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“I want to live independently. I would like to get into the field of cyber security”

“I want to live independently. I would like to get into the field of cyber security”
 
If you speak Ladakhi you can log on to two YouTube channels of Chemet Rafail who hails from Leh. In the podcast, “Crazy Talks with Rafail”, which has 700 followers, he interviews one person every month (the ‘crazy’ is perhaps just click bait since his conversations follow the serious journalistic format) while “Rafail Diary” is a vlog in which his bubbly nature is on display. In one Diary post he films himself travelling alone from Bengaluru to Leh via Mumbai, taking cabs, boarding flights and “surprising my mother at home”.
 
Rafail now studies in Bengaluru but Vicky Roy photographed him and his family in his hometown Chuglamsar on the banks of the river Indus amid the stark beauty of Leh’s mountains and valleys. Shortly after he came to Bengaluru he missed his beloved Leh so badly he impulsively packed his bags and flew home (hence the diary post). “Spending time again in Leh helped me feel strong and reminded me of my goal – to live independently – and I came back more determined to achieve it.”
 
All his life, Rafail, who was born with cerebral palsy (CP) which impaired his speech and mobility, has depended heavily on his aunt Lobzang Dolma (43) whom he calls Badi Ma (“big mother”, which refers to the mother’s older sister). Dolma explains, “My sister was married to a man with a drinking problem. They live in a village and are unemployed. I have taken care of Rafail since the age of five.” Rafail tells us, “She is the one who has always taken care of me – my health and my education. I owe my life to her.”
 
Dolma also raised Rafail’s younger brother Stanzin Nima (15). She was a daily wage labourer who later started earning her livelihood hand-weaving Tsung Den carpets made of raw sheep-wool. She poured her attention into Rafail, taking him to doctors in Ladakh, Chandigarh and Dehradun, helping him with bathing, dressing and eating, and carrying him to school on her back. To add to her burden, in 2010 their house got swept away in the floods and they had to start from scratch all over again.
 
Schooling was a series of hurdles. Rafail started out in the army school in Ladakh but because he could not withstand Leh’s icy winters Dolma moved to Dehradun. He couldn’t adjust to the special school there because, he says, it divided pupils based on their disability. They came back to Leh but none of the good schools would admit him. Then the lama at the local temple met Dolma and said, he’s a smart boy, put him in the Mahabodhi Residential School. She worried she wouldn’t be able to afford the fees but the lama promised to find her a sponsor soon. “I paid the fees for three months after which he got a sponsor,” she says.
 
Rafail joined 9th Standard and completed his 10th. “For the first time I met teachers who truly cared about me and my wellbeing,” he says. “They support me even to this day. One teacher told me, always think big and never let your circumstances stop you. This is what gave me the courage to independently move out of Leh to study further.” At first he considered other cities such as Delhi, Chandigarh and Chennai but he ultimately chose Bengaluru because “many people speak English here and I wanted to improve my English”.
 
It was very tough to get admission and many Bengaluru schools rejected him because of his multiple disabilities, says Rafail. “Here you see malls and other public places providing disability access but educational institutes don’t. It is very important for schools to be accessible so we are assured of quality education.” He is now in Class 12 in Orchid International School, BTM Layout. He was partly sponsored for Class 11 and 12 by Sonam Wangchuck, founding-director of the Students’ Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh, and he is looking for other sponsors to help further his education. He lives in paying guest accommodation in Koramangala. He has made no friends as yet in Bengaluru, though. He terribly misses his “wonderful friends” back home; most of them are in Delhi now and have always been his “biggest support – mentally, monetarily”.
 
It was during the 2020 Covid pandemic that Rafail started his YouTube channels. “My life changed after that; people started noticing me,” he says. On Sundays he spends time editing his videos and preparing content for new ones. He has two dreams: to get into the field of cyber security and learn about ethical hacking, and to become a businessman so he can help others. As for Dolma, her only wish is for him to be independent, be able to take care of himself, get a good job and settle down.