A Board and a Chair on Wheels

Pain is the best teacher. So is travel. In pain, we learn in silence. In travel, we learn by direct observations. We create our own opportunity to interact with strangers. We learn that strangers are not as intimidating as what we think they are. We are more bold in actions abroad when home. We let loose naturally. We are not so self-conscious about making mistakes. We compare a lot. The phenomenon is the same as when we are intoxicated. Everything is pleasant and real. When we become sober, it is a time of introspection when the differences of both worlds become obvious.

I was in a sardine-packed train and the screeching noise was discrediting the service of the in-built passenger announcements that notifies the arrival of the train at each station. Then the herd started to spread out in unison and slowly a stream of music amplified the carriage I was in. To my relief, it deafened the noise immediately. But it was short-lived by the reality in front of my eyes. The gap that sandwiched the crowd was a horizontal man on a board with wheels. He was surfing on his arms with two lifeless legs being dragged on the floor. He was coping to balance himself with the music recorder on one hand and a fist-sized bowl on the other. He was earning his living. I was too timid and fearful to look at him directly. Shamelessly, neither did I contribute to his rice bowl.

What I saw then was creativity and the determination to live. Instead of wriggling through like a snail or be lifted like an emperor, in order to survive he has no choice but to improvise. To survive means to create functions that facilitate the means of earning. This resulted in the board on wheels. While a board on wheels is synonymous to recreation in the developed world, it is a utility for the disadvantaged. The disadvantaged  either give up or are determined to cross the threshold to live. They defy their harsh circumstances fraught with immense inconveniences. I saw another who looked very tired and simply gave up. Passed by him twice on different occasions. He was motionless and asleep in the sultry summer. His empty bowl was next to his tireless and sun-baked body. He did not care if he would have enough to sustain his broken body but it was apparent that he did not have the zeal to drag himself further to a better slumber. A stark contrast of the will to live between the two of them.

Travel is our third eye which heightens our sight to gain a deeper understanding of the other world which we hear and read about, but have not experienced it ourselves. The experiences that I encountered with the disadvantaged (there were numerous) reinforce my realization that there is always someone worse off than ourselves. A half-paralyzed person on a wheelchair is seemed to be more privileged than a half-paralyzed person on a board with wheels. A person with bad shoes is more privileged than a person with no feet. A healthy person has the liberty to choose to use a board on wheels standing vertically or lying horizontally anytime. But a underprivileged disadvantaged has no choice. It is a permanent fixture. We tend to lose our sense of appreciation toward things we already have and grieve about our own living conditions. If we pause a bit and think, "what have we done to be given a full body of life?" Nothing actually.

"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” – Marcel Proust