Ever feel stupid? I just did.<\/p>\n
What happened is this.<\/p>\n
I was shooting a film for one of my clients, with a group\u00a0of specially abled kids across Delhi and Mumbai.<\/p>\n
I expected loads of problems shooting with youngsters who are speech and hearing challenged.<\/p>\n
How wrong I was.<\/p>\n
In my corrected opinion, they are the most misunderstood people I have ever met in my life.<\/p>\n
They have all suffered at the hands of a society that treats anyone who is different with disdain.<\/p>\n
Many people look upon them as \u2018disabled\u2019, but after interacting with them at length, I can tell you this much\u2026 they are not challenged, they are special.<\/p>\n
They are the most talkative, bright, enthusiastic, excited lot I have met in a long time.<\/p>\n
They are fun people, full of energy, questions and curiosity.<\/p>\n
They are intelligent\u2026 far more than they are given credit for.<\/p>\n
They are sensitive and caring.<\/p>\n
They do not bicker or fight amongst themselves.<\/p>\n
They do not point fingers or play blame games.<\/p>\n
Most importantly, they are friends who take up for each other as one… encouraging each other, supporting each other and stepping in to help each other where it was required.<\/p>\n
I was surprised by the ease with which I could shoot with them.<\/p>\n
They understood what needed to be done, discussed among themselves, and delivered the shots I wanted to capture, much better and faster than most normal people would.<\/p>\n
I was so overwhelmed by this experience that I wanted to thank them from the bottom of my heart.<\/p>\n
So, without checking or knowing sign language, I placed my hand on my heart to\u00a0thank them.<\/p>\n
I have been getting a funny look back, everytime I thanked someone in this way.\u00a0So I decided to check why.<\/p>\n
Turns out, that a hand on the heart doesn’t mean a thank you from the bottom of the heart, but instead signifies \u2018Mine\u2019.<\/p>\n
So, in effect, since yesterday I\u2019ve been looking people in the eye and saying \u2018Mine!\u2019<\/p>\n
No wonder they looked back at me with the \u2018Is this guy OK in the head?\u2019 kind of look.<\/p>\n
I guess I\u2019m now branded among them as a pervert who makes passes at the girls AND the boys.<\/p>\n
Serves me right for not taking the effort to understand them, before I expected them to understand me.<\/p>\n
But then isn\u2019t that the way the entire \u2018normal\u2019 world is thinking?<\/p>\n
Makes you wonder about who is actually normal, and who is actually challenged!<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
photo credit: highersights<\/a> via photopin<\/a> cc<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A lesson in understanding others Ever feel stupid? I just did. What happened is this. I was shooting a film […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":708,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5,7],"tags":[195,193,194,196],"class_list":["post-707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-humor-satire","category-opinion","category-spirituality","tag-hearing-impaired","tag-special","tag-specially-abled","tag-speech-impaired"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n