Inspired by life

It has been almost a month and a half staying at Manipal and I’m already loving the life here. Various societies of the college hold different activities and among these, the social welfare committee of KMC conduct regular visits to Asare. Not many people know what Asare is (neither did I, before joining Manipal). It is a home for the mentally challenged run by a trust in alliance with the Manipal University. Last weekend I paid my first visit there, along with my batchmates and few seniors.

As soon as I entered, a potpourri of emotions filled my mind. Initially, I was a little apprehensive to get along with them as the whole place was filled with squeaks, howls and random murmurs. In a while, my friends and I got accustomed to the entourage. We started mingling with them by helping them draw and colour on sheets, while they began to share few memories that they remembered. Later on, we grooved to the beats of latest Bollywood music. I was startled to see that, many of them had the lyrics learnt by heart.

At this point, a plethora of thoughts ran into my head. We keep cribbing about silly things even though we are blessed with a healthy life. On the contrary, there are such people who don’t realize the misery of their life yet manage to put up a happy living along with a little amount of pain. It is indeed very rightly said by Helen Keller that, “Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it!”  and this is aptly personified by these astonishingly beautiful people at Asare.  This interaction knocked softly on the door enclosing a solitary nook in my mind, a crevice that, within it, contained the very essence of life and all that is inspired by the beauty that is associated with life!