An amazing event

Asatoma sadgamaya
Tamasoma jyotirgamaya
Mryutorma amrutamgamaya

From falsehood to the truth
From darkness to light
From mortality to immortality

Nice words, eh? Well, these lines were played in a musical which I attended today, at the Gurunanak Bhavan, near Shivajinagar. Obviously, this was not the first time I heard these words - they have been a part of my upbringing, and not to mention, were played as the concluding score in the last of the Matrix movies - my second favourite movie trilogy. But today's was the most special situation in which I heard these words. Why? read on...

I am really not so much into plays and stage shows, so when my former roommate asked me to accompany him to a play today (we have a get-together planned every month), I wasn't that keen. Fortunately, like so many other times, I was wrong, and had a great time. The reason was that the performers on the 'stage-show' were kids who had some or the other form of disability, AND more importantly, they overcame it to put up an incredibly well-coordinated show.

The event was conducted by Chrysalis, an organization that works with differently enabled people. (Yeah, I am being politically correct.) A lot of the organizing was done by volunteers from MindTree consulting (I guess). Kids between ages of 5 and 15 (I think) put up such great performances that I felt ashamed of my own two left feet. Not just that...the event challenged some of my own beliefs in some unpredictable ways. For long, I had always assumed that the 'next' generation of people were in general, less socially conscious than my own, and that girls were less likely to be socially aware than guys, and that 'baal kati ladkiyan' - to quote a famous Sharad Yadav phrase - were less into social issues than the others.

Was I proven wrong on all counts today!? For someone who ranted against typecasting people based on how they look, I have been guilty of the same!!!

Thanks, Prad.