Seeing through the darkness: Jyoti Kanetkar meets an Indian businesswoman who has triumphed over physical disability.In India we have a saying, `She who rocks the cradle makes the world a better place.' It certainly applies to Neela Dave, a wife and mother who lives in one of Bombay's extended joint families. Hers has 56 members. For all its size, it is a close-knit and supportive unit. Her husband's name is Deepak, which means light. She feels this is apt as she is now almost blind due to retinitis pigmentosa Retinitis Pigmentosa Definition Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) refers to a group of inherited disorders that slowly lead to blindness due to abnormalities of the photoreceptors (primarily the rods) in the retina. and he is her `light, mentor and guide'. Despite her handicap, she has become a successful businesswoman. The creche she started is now managed by her mother, while she runs a thriving luxury bus business for tourists. She traces her remarkable success to an invitation she received from the Blind Graduates Forum of India to a conference at Asia Plateau plateau, elevated, level or nearly level portion of the earth's surface, larger in summit area than a mountain and bounded on at least one side by steep slopes, occurring on land or in oceans. , Panchgani, the MRA MRA Medical Record Administrator. MRA Magnetic resonance angiography, see MR angiography centre in western India. There Dave was intrigued and challenged by a speaker on time management. He suggested that time was the same 60 seconds' worth per minute for everyone, regardless of their circumstances. It was what you did with that time that counted, he said. During an exercise which they did in pairs, Dave confided to her neighbour her deep despair at her advancing blindness and her sense of failing her husband and family. After that session, there arose in Dave the conviction that she should make her remaining one-and-a-half years of semi-sight count for every second. Instead of leaving the marriage, she determined to respond to the love and encouragement she knew her husband and the rest of the family were offering her. She would take on life as a challenge. Today she helps counsel other victims of blindness. Though a subsequent operation in Cuba has only marginally slowed down the onset of darkness, she still intends to fulfil ful·fill also ful·fil tr.v. ful·filled, ful·fill·ing, ful·fills also ful·fils 1. To bring into actuality; effect: fulfilled their promises. 2. her dream of visiting Niagara Falls Niagara Falls, waterfall, United States and Canada Niagara Falls, in the Niagara River, W N.Y. and S Ont., Canada; one of the most famous spectacles in North America. The falls are on the international line between the cities of Niagara Falls, N.Y. with her husband and seven-year-old daughter. `I want to tell all blind people that blindness in not a deterrent de·ter·rent adj. Tending to deter: deterrent weapons. n. 1. Something that deters: a deterrent to theft. 2. but a challenge to live a happy and fulfilled ful·fill also ful·fil tr.v. ful·filled, ful·fill·ing, ful·fills also ful·fils 1. To bring into actuality; effect: fulfilled their promises. 2. life,' she says. `Thanks to the love and encouragement of my husband and family I now have an inner happiness and determination which not even my blindness can take from me.' |
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