Chakachi Khurchi

Book Review

An inspiring tale of a handicapped author, Naseema Hurjuk, who learns to live an independent life despite heavy odds against her. She becomes paraplegic at the age of 16, as a result of a spinal cord injury. She is willing to give up on life. Her whole family stands behind her to help with rehabilitation, in the face of rising expenses and several children to bring up. Her father has to move to a remote job location. She communicates with him through letters. Within months her father dies under suspicious circumstances. That’s when she decides to take the challenge her father has given her to remain happy for her mother’s sake. She learns day-to-day tasks that she can perform herself including cooking. She enrolls in college, but is not able to attend due to inadequate facilities. She studies by herself to graduate. She finds a willing mentor in Babu Kaka, who encourages her to participate in handicapped sports. She wins several awards and even participates in international meets. When she visits the UK for one such meet, she is given a good wheelchair in donation. She wants to make use of her experience to help other handicapped get these advanced wheelchairs and other devices to live life independently. She struggles to find a job, where she can work and become financially independent. With seed money from Babu Kaka and help from several donors, she establishes a charitable organization to help other handicapped people nearby. She finds other handicapped volunteers to work with her and assigns them tasks in this organization. She finds that society does not want to help the handicapped, but instead raises obstacles in their path to become independent, physically as well as financially. Her “Disabled Rehabilitation organization” fails because the volunteers misuse the charitable donations for their personal gains. Naseema continues to offer personal help to handicapped children who need medical as well as mental attention. She is helped in this task by several colleagues at work as well as her immediate and extended family. She establishes another charitable organization, “Helpers of the Handicapped”. Her goal is to help handicapped people rehabilitate physically as well as mentally. She wants to teach them to function independently and become contributing members of the society. She runs a hostel for handicapped where every task is performed by the handicapped. She strives to find a permanent means of earning for the organization by running a Gas Agency and a Catering business. Naseema is now retired from her day job and works for Helpers of the Handicapped full time. More information on Helpers of the handicapped: http://www.hohk.org.in/index.html