Group Meeting 21 August - Report

Group Meeting - Report

- Anand Vaidya

Date - Sunday 21st August, 2010

Place - PUKAR Office

Time - 3pm to 5pm

Members present - Anand Vaidya, Amod Vaidya, Manisha Bhurke, Yogesh Panchal, Yasmin Shaikh, Ashok Gupta, Rohan Shintre, Sunil Gangavane (Coordinator)

Agenda - 1) Introduction with our coordinator Mr Sunil Gangavane

                2) Biography - discussion & method

                3) Clarity on research topic & research method

Meeting Report -

This was my group member's first meeting with our coordinator Sunil. Though I & Amod had met him before on 2 or 3 occasions but other members had never met him. So this meeting was very important for Sunil & my group to get to know each other.

At first this meting was scheduled at MBA center in Powai. But just a few days before we all came to know that a Health Check-up camp for members of MBA Foundation has been organised at their center on Sunday 21st August, which was our meeting date. I talked to Sunil about this & asked him if we can postpone our meeting as I do not have any other place to hold our meeting. Sunil suggested that we can hold our meeting at PUKAR office in Bandra. I knew it was very difficult for me to arrange a vehicle for 7 or 8 people at such a short notice. But Sunil insisted that we must hold this meeting as it was his first meeting with the group so it can not be postponed. I had no choice. I called up the same vehicle owner Mr Tambe, which we had used for going to Annual Exhibition at TISS, & asked him if he is available on 21st August. Luckily for my group his vehicle was available.

First Tambe picked up Yogesh from Bhandup(East) at 11:45am, then came to MBA Powai center to pick up Manisha & myself, then to Jogeshwari to pick up Rohan & Yasmin, & finaly to PUKAR office. Ashok & Amod had reached there by 2:30pm. We were late & reached at around 3:30pm because of traffic.

The entrance of PUKAR office has a one & a half feet divider. On the outer side it has 3 steps and inside it has no steps. It was very difficult for wheelchair users like Manisha, Yogesh & Yasmin to get in or come out of the office. It required 3 or 4 people to lift their wheelchair to get them in or out of the office. But that day all PUKAR staff came forward to help us including Sunil, Bharat Gangurde & Kiran Sawant.

Once inside, Sunil offered us water to drink, tea & biscuits for snacks. Relaxed! We started our meeting. First everyone gave their introduction to Sunil. Then Sunil introduced himself. He talked about what PUKAR is all about.

all of us having tea & biscuits

Then we discussed about our research topic. Everyone shared their opinions, view & personal experiences. Yogesh spoke about why it is important for all buildings to be accessible to persons like him. Manisha spoke about attitude of people about persons like her. She shared her own experience. Yasmin agreed with Manisha that people have very wrong attitude towards them. Ashok talked about employment. Rohan did not have much to say but we told him to share his college experience. This way three major issues that came forth were Accessibility, Employment & Attitude. We could not finalize our research topic but it was a very good discussion that we all had.

my group with Sunil (on extreme left)

my group with Sunil (on extreme right)

my group members listening with
full attention to what Sunil is saying

Sunil suggested that I should speak to Harshad Jadhav, last year's PUKAR Youth Fellow. Harshad is 100% blind, he was the catalyst of his group. Sunil told me that his experiences would help me a lot as I am also leading a group of 8 physically disabled persons. I took his contact number.

Later I requested Sunil to explain why we have been asked to write our own biography. He told us that writing our own biography is itself a small research. We look back into our lives trying to remember past events, write them down, talk to our family, relatives & friends. While writing our biography simultaneously we have our group meetings to finalize our research topic.

eating idli-chatni

Then we all ate delicious idli-chatni, which my mother made at home for all of us. It was time to go home. Again Bharat, Kiran & Sunil helped us to take Manisha, Yogesh & Yasmin out of the office. Meanwhile Executive Director of PUKAR Dr Anita Patil-Deshmukh came out of the office to see how all my team members travel by car, how my team members sit inside the car. She also told Bharat to take photos of all my team members. She told us that she is amazed by the determination, strong will power & willingness to go the extra mile of my team members to learn something new. We also clicked one photo of our group with Anita ma'm.

Anita ma'm, Bharat & myself with
my group

Anita ma'm, Bharat & Kiran with my
group

Yogesh, Manisha & I requested Anita ma'm, Sunil & Bharat to make the entrance at PUKAR office more accessible & wheelchair friendly. We suggested them to make a wooden ramp wherever there are stairs. They promised us that they will either make a wooden ramp or take permission from society to make a permanent ramp.

Tambe helping Yogesh sit inside the car

Anita ma'm looks amazed at how Yasmin
herself sits inside the car

Yasmin sitting inside the car without
anyone's help

helping Manisha sit inside the car

Bharat helping Amod & Tambe to keep
wheelchairs on the carrier.

Once all of us inside the car, I asked all my team members whether they would like to see Bandra-Worli Sea Link. But all were tired and it will take another 4 hours more to reach home. So the plan to go there was cancelled.

We first dropped Ashok near his home, then headed towards Jogeshwari to drop Rohan & Yasmin at home, then to Powai to drop Manisha & myself, finally to Bhandup to drop Yogesh. I really appreciate Yogesh for his hardwork & patience to sit for such long hours.