Friday, July 3, 2015

Vineet is Prefect in School !!!! YAY!!


I was pleasantly surprised and a bit unbelieving when Vineet told me he was going to be Prefect; as soon as he started his Class 10 classes.But then his brothers told me it was true! He was selected to be "Extra-Curricular" Captain of the School.Then came the Invitation to attend his Investiture Ceremony on 14th May 2015. We as parents were overwhelmed.
            Gratitude and Thankfulness are small words to describe our feelings for Vineet's school and all the teachers in here. They have been the wind beneath Vineet's wings ever since he joined in Kindergarten. Yes, it was an advantage at that point that his dad was one of the teachers, but we were sometimes apprehensive whether he being specially-challenged would be admitted. All we knew at that time, some 15 years ago was that children in wheelchairs don't attend normal school. They have special schools.Here in India there is no difference in treatment of an 'Orthopaedically challenged' person and a "mentally-challenged' person. So a deaf and dumb child goes to a Special school alongwith an Autistic child and a child with Cerebral Palsy. I wonder if Vineet's dad would not have been a teacher in this school whether he would have been admitted. But yes, these apprehensions of parents of other special kids have been taken care of now by our government. ALL kids irrespective of their challenges- physical or mental, have to be taken in by mainstream schools.

To read more on INCLUSIVE Education by UNICEF click here

It is heartening to see ramps all over the 2 Christian Brothers Schools here in our small town of Asansol. Vineet's struggles have paved the way for many more specially-challenged children in school who are younger to him and his story is inspiring to so many parents. So, THANKYOU ALL you loving and caring teachers, students, supervisors and of course, Mr N. D'souza, Vineet's beloved Principal. He never misses a chance to help Vineet fly....

           So below is the link to some of his fotos of the Investiture Ceremony. As you all can make out, he's very serious about his post ;)

Click here to see fotos of Vineet's Investiture Ceremony

Click here to see a video of Vineet taking oath


Vineet's First Power Wheelchair!!!




WHEELCHAIR  NUMBER  8

I had my eyes on the Power wheelchair for Vin long enough now and was under the impression that it would cost us the moon. So I told myself to wait for some more time till Vin really needed it. And one fine day when I was going through some local companies for it, I stumbled upon the official site of 'KARMA' wheelchairs in India and was pleasantly surprised to find a decent model that cost only Rupees Ninety Thousand!( Fourteen hundred dollars approx). It was even amazing that there was a dealer right in our small town!! We spoke to them for a demo which they readily agreed for and we took Vin to the shop. He was just as excited as we were coz he was getting a little tired of 'being pushed around'!! hahaha! And he's too lazy to push himself except when he's on his fav wheelchair at home.






We came back home and pretended to Vin that we would not be buying it - it was way too expensive! :P We planned to surprise him on Valentine's Day which was just after a few days and he's 'Our Valentine' of course :) So on Valentine's Day 2015 we surprised him in the evening with his new Power chair and he was overjoyed! I took some snaps and few videos too, but by mistake they got deleted from my phone :( A few that got saved which I uploaded to FB are here in the links - Have a look and BE HAPPY!!!! Share our small and big joys! Thankyou!







The link to a small video on the first day! --