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“I was in Class 11 when I first saw a wheelchair, and realised it would make my life easier”

EGS has always featured positive stories of disabled persons. But to expect them to remain constantly cheerful and hopeful is asking for too much. None of us, whether disabled or not, can avoid the thorns of life, and if we bleed in despair, well, we’re only human.
 
When our interviewer spoke to Seema Kanwar (37) from Jaipur, who has a locomotor disability, she was going through a rough patch. Armed with a Masters in Fine Arts, she has been applying for any job vacancy she comes across, but without success. A feeling of stagnation has overcome her.
 
Speaking about her childhood, Seema says, “I never felt different from others nor was I treated differently. My family has always been supportive and never made me feel disabled.” However, she says she used to move around by crawling, and would depend on people to carry her, to and from school and any other place she wanted to go. She got her wheelchair after she had completed high school.
 
“When I went to the Sucheta Kriplani Shiksha Niketan in Jodhpur to do my Class 11 and 12, it was the first time I had seen a wheelchair!” she recalls. “That is when I realised there was something that would make my life easier.” Her fondest memories are of her hostel days in Jodhpur, when she had a lot of fun spending time with friends. She later joined the residential Government Women Polytechnic College in Jodhpur where she did her diploma in Commercial Arts, followed by Bachelors and Masters in Fine Arts. “My best friend Prathibha Mohanpuria lives in Jodhpur and we met while I was studying there,” she says. “We don’t get to meet often now, but she is the one I feel closest to. It is only with her that I feel I can share anything.”
 
Seema lives a somewhat restricted life now in Jaipur where she lives with her parents, two brothers, sister-in-law, and three-year-old nephew Vedant whom she is very fond of (“We call him Vasu; he is visiting his grandmother now as he has winter vacation”). She appreciates the status she is given in the household. “I am not dependent on my family. In fact, it is the other way around; they are dependent on me,” she says. “I cook for my parents, I clean, I do other chores in the house.” She adds, “If I have to go out I ride my scooter.” But she admits she remains largely indoors.
 
Seeing movies on TV and listening to music are some of her pastimes but given her current state of mind she says she rarely spends time on them. When asked about her daily routine she says, “When I get up in the morning and if I’m in the mood I might decide, today I’ll do painting, or stitching, or putting on mehendi and make-up.”
 
As she describes the source of her current dejection, she says, “My dreams were simple: a government job, a settled life – that is all I ever wanted. Now I have given up, because I have realised that just wanting something doesn’t make it happen, and in my case even trying is not helping.” She studied hard to sit for exams that would qualify her for a government job. No coaching classes; it was all her own effort. “But each time I missed qualifying by one or two marks,” she says. “However even now if I see any vacancy posted I still keep applying.”
 
One hopes this bright young woman is able to revive her spirits and rekindle her hopes for the future.