Life is not a bed of roses. There are petals and thorns that lie everywhere. We struggle, we fight, we survive and then we conquer. But what if we get a chance to become a partner in someone else’s fight? What if we get a chance to become a helping hand in one’s journey of achieving dreams?

Around two years back, with a similar thought in mind, I joined ARISE Impact, an organisation that trains college students with job ready and life ready skills, as a Community Engagement Lead. My role was to manage, engage, and train the visually challenged students with special learning courses developed by the team.

This space was completely new to me. I had never interacted with any person with visual impairments. Of course, I went through the training in the organization. Still, I was very skeptical.

How will I talk? What will I talk about? I hope I don’t offend anyone unknowingly.

But soon, after successive interactions I realised, it’s like talking to any other person. In a few days, I was able to shed the awkwardness that I had.

But a thought still runs deep in my mind:

Why do we treat something like this ‘special’? Why is there a stigma attached?

I began training students in professional courses. I discussed various modules such as resume building, professional introduction, etc. with them. I used English as well as Hindi to teach them. The most amusing part was I was doing all this using a Whatsapp group!

We use Whatsapp to interact with friends and family. I never had idea that we can also use it to train people in professional courses!

I was sitting in Hyderabad and teaching college students sitting in Jammu and Delhi using Whatsapp. Every day, we connected in the evening. I used to take out some time from my office schedule. I gave them some exercises through voice messages on WhatsApp. I listened to some jokes and learned some life lessons from them. I narrated them many inspiring stories. My hectic office time used to get converted into scenes of smiles and joy.

Social media can be taxing and negative at times. But it can also be revolutionary. I was living that revolution.

Many of the students referred to me as ‘Sir’. It was awkward for me. I really didn’t know whether I even deserve to be called Sir. I always used that word for my seniors and my teachers. It was weird listening to something like that for myself. I requested students to use my name. They refused. In the end, we all settled for ‘Bhaiya’.

From one batch at a time, I jumped to multiple batches at the same time. I completed the course in a few batches and then got to take up more batches and train more and more people. One day, during a session on interview skills, I asked a question to everyone:

“What would you reply to an employer if he say you are lesser than any other person?”

I received the answer:

“It’s my heart that has the real vision not my eyes. I can see much more beyond than what a normal person can see. And that’s exactly I would tell that person”

Almost everyone had similar things to say. Those lines had some magic in them. I listened to them again and again and started thinking about myself: What vision do I have other than this biological vision?

Since that day, my vision has been to attain that ‘vision of heart’ that is much more beyond a normal vision.

ARISE Impact has been training thousands of students with disabilities for the last 10 years and has delivered hundreds of Special Education Modules. And it’s not just limited to India, the organization is doing amazing work across multiple countries. The engagement level of students is high. That has led to better English fluency among visually challenged students. Moreover, the self-learning process has increased self-confidence among these children and has empowered them to seek employment in a variety of fields.

Every time I get to connect with the ARISE Impact team across the globe during our team meetings, an amazing feeling runs through me. We have a group of people who are experts in their respective fields and they are using their expertise for this cause. Some use their Human Resources Management skills, the other uses their Digital Marketing skills. Some use their expressive voices to record bilingual learning modules, the other uses their skills to develop such courses. But most importantly everyone uses their spirit to keep making the difference and never stop.

This vision is spread across the globe. The vision of working endlessly towards a common beautiful and empowering vision.

And I feel glad that I am a part of this vision!