Mending the shattered dream! As a young boy in college my great desire was to serve people and work in villages! This was a passion which I developed as a teenager. As I completed my under grad and planning to step into post-graduation I was keen to do Masters in Social Work. I started visiting a few universities looking for opportunities. For a blind student it was not as simple as applying as I needed to check the facilities for blind students as in those days higher studies was a challenge in terms of reading and gathering notes. Technology was not advanced as today, I used the traditional tape recording method and listened to pre-recorded books or notes which had to be laboriously recorded, and I did not take any notes in class and listened to the pre-recorded tapes to prepare for exams. Few universities in Karnataka shut the doors for me on my face on the pretext that they did not have specific facility for blind students. I visited Mysore University with my mother one day. I don’t remember who we met now but it was one staff of the MSW department who praised my efforts of completing bachelors, and stated that there are 2 seats for outsiders but that the seat cannot be offered to me as I am blind. As I heard this my dreams were shattered, I asked him the reason and he explained that it will be difficult for me as a blind person to travel and work in slums and villages as social work course demanded considerable mobility from students as part of field work. As though comforting me, he further stated that he can offer a seat in the sociology department as it does not entail travel and will be good for me. I was in tears! The journey back to Bangalore by bus was very long as I almost had no hope, it was a long drawn dream of mine to study social work and become a professional social worker. All that went in my mind was “who is he to decide” “I am willing to take the challenge” but on the other side was almost sure the doors for my future was shut. As a final resort I then applied to Madras Christian College and everything else is history; As I reflect back, after 20 years of this incident, on the last count I have travelled across 140 districts in India, across 22 states and countless villages and slums for work! The shattered dreams was mended! And the learning ever since has been not to be judgemental and build awareness on disability amongst general population which I have been practising ever since!