My disabled friend

When I was in my primaries I befriended a lame neighbour who was shunned by most of my neighbours. I remember we used to climb fruit trees while getting this friend to collect fruits that fell down when we plucked them. 

My friends were very insensitive. While this friend collected the loose fruits that fell down when we had plucked the fruits he used to have some of the loose fruits that had come off from the bunches that got detached  when the bunches hit the ground. If our collection of fruits was not large enough my friends used to be unhappy and curse this friend of mine and accuse him of stealing the stolen fruits. I use to sympathise with my friend as the greedy ones up on the trees who  used my friend as a watchman,  were inconsiderate and would not give him a fair share when the loot was divided. Usually I used to share my fruits with him much to the annoyance of my other friends. 

My able bodied friends used to call him derogatory names including the “lame one”which did not bother my friend. He used to reason out that what they were saying was factual though  insensitive. They would not call him names if they had someone in their families who was equally disabled. Despite his disability, he was a bright student who was among the top ten in the class and earned the praise of teachers. Despite getting good grades he found it difficult to secure employment befitting his grades. Finally he resorted to securing employment through the efforts of the Welfare Department which was actively engaged in assisting  the disabled in seeking employment. Employers who were approached by the Department usually bargained hard and felt they were being kind to engage the disabled despite getting tax relief for doing so. The  officers had to compromise on starting wages as employers argued that the disabled could not be equated to the able bodied as they would need more training and special equipment to handle routine jobs. They argued that it was only fair that they get reimbursed for the additional  expenses they incurred in employing the disabled, and completely ignored the double taxation relief they received in return. Some employers engaged the disabled only in demeaning jobs like lift attendants and office orderlies though they showed promise of higher performance when given the opportunity. 

My friend managed to get an office job as a despatch clerk. He found this job boring as there were very few letters that needed envelopes. It appeared that his job was just to facilitate the postmen  handling their jobs with ease, as the sorting was done by him and the postmen just had to dump the bundle of letters in the various pouches at the delivery room. Most days he found he was underemployed and offered to assist the other clerks in their duties. Some staff were kind while the rest felt his offer of assistance was a nuisance as it reduced their workload and if this continued they would be found redundant. He used to confide in me that he was underemployed and he did not feel happy with his job. I suggested he should not worry about the remarks made by his colleagues who did not like his offer of help. If he found he had too much free  time he could consider pursuing further education to improve his career prospects.  He agreed and said that he too was thinking on those lines but was afraid to do any serious study while at work. I advised him that reading books was better than idling by with too much time on his hands. As long as he completed his daily tasks, he need not worry about repercussions. He agreed and started preparing for Form 6 studies that would enable him to pursue  a pre-university course which would open avenues to a university degree. At the end of the year he sat for his form six examination and on passing the examination he applied for a law degree at a local university. He was elated when he was offered a place to do law at the university of his choice. At the university  he excelled in his studies  and obtained a law degree which would prepare him for a senior job in the public service. He thanked me profusely for my encouragement and promised that he would provide help to his friends who are striving to improve their educational attainments. I was glad I could help someone who was wondering how he could improve  his job prospects while being a full time employee.

All contents (c) Ganapathy Ramasamy, mynameisgana@blogspot.com

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