This piece of make-believe fiction was born of a silly family whatsapp discussion. My sister-in-law commented that the job of the President of India was falling vacant in July in case somebody was jobless and interested. It so happened that I had formally retired from my position as senior Professor of mathematics just a few weeks earlier; so i responded `hey, I am jobless', and what followed was some tongue-in-cheek promises of promising support in the event of not being a competitor.
As days went by, and as I saw the names that were being touted for possible candidates for the post, I started indulging in some day-dreaming, listing the pros and cons of the prospect of `putting in my application' for the job. By an odd coincidence, nearly the same fact was at the top of both lists, viz. the implications of and for my multiple sclerosis. Let me elaborate the lists as I see them, starting with the cons.
I have become increasingly locomotor disabled, having spent the last month trying to make our residence, which has been home for almost 15 years, accessible. My disease leaves my energy levels depleted most of the time, so much so that my wife and I had decided to minimise, maybe even altogether eliminate, travel. One of the many reasons I have wanted to not even think of moving out of Chennai is that my doctor lives in Chennai and he has shepherded me through many phases of MS with an utmost comforting and soothing manner; and I would never want to forego the security of his proximity.
Now for the pros. If the Indian president was essentially wheelchair-bound, the promises of rendering our country accessible can finally become reality. Magically, ramps and elevators will sprout everywhere. And even Air India will be forced to allow a PWD to take his own wheelchair into the plane, and to make sure that such wheelchair is available for its user when needed on arriving at the destination (unlike several horror stories that have been reported in our national newspapers of the wheelchair not being found at the destination!). Implementing the aims of the UNCRPD will be a breeze. And I will have occasion to tell a potential Presidential candidate, Mr. E. Sreedharan, of the NDA, that with his Metro, a last possible hope, of travel on public transport by PWD, has gone down the tubes - by showing him the records of DRA's attempts to engage CMRL over several years, that have been meticulously preserved by Vaishnavi.
And now to answer the inevitable question of why anybody should consider my `job-application' seriously, I can trot out the list of winners (which also includes me) of awards such as Nobel Prizes, Magsaysay Award, Padma Awards of all hues (Shree, Bhushan, Vibushan), Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, that have been periodically turned out by my extended family, going up to grand-uncle and grand-aunt!) After all, ours is a nation where people are made rulers because of their families! In terms of preparedness for the job, I am also a scientist, not unlike Abdul Kalam. I could then go on to enumerate my own achievements in mathematics and social awareness building of the plight of PWD.
Finally, at a time when one hears ominous slogans like `United States of South India' and echoes of the old `anti-Hindi' sentiment, it would be a good idea to opt for a person who can't speak Hindi to save his life, and to give a semblance of an assurance to the southern states that non-Hindi speakers are still very much a part of the fabric of the Indian tricolour. This is obviously not a carefully thought out idea (or job application) of mine; I do not want people to take me too seriously and mock me for even thinking of this as a possibility.
On the other hand, just think what this would mean for the several millions of PWD in our country - a measure of how seriously their plight is taken by our Govt. being indicated by their calling us Divyangjan, while they have not given a moment's thought to finding out just how many such divine creatures there are! Just imagine what a PWD in the Rashtrapathi Bhavan can mean for the lives of the undetermined number of our divine PWD!
As days went by, and as I saw the names that were being touted for possible candidates for the post, I started indulging in some day-dreaming, listing the pros and cons of the prospect of `putting in my application' for the job. By an odd coincidence, nearly the same fact was at the top of both lists, viz. the implications of and for my multiple sclerosis. Let me elaborate the lists as I see them, starting with the cons.
I have become increasingly locomotor disabled, having spent the last month trying to make our residence, which has been home for almost 15 years, accessible. My disease leaves my energy levels depleted most of the time, so much so that my wife and I had decided to minimise, maybe even altogether eliminate, travel. One of the many reasons I have wanted to not even think of moving out of Chennai is that my doctor lives in Chennai and he has shepherded me through many phases of MS with an utmost comforting and soothing manner; and I would never want to forego the security of his proximity.
Now for the pros. If the Indian president was essentially wheelchair-bound, the promises of rendering our country accessible can finally become reality. Magically, ramps and elevators will sprout everywhere. And even Air India will be forced to allow a PWD to take his own wheelchair into the plane, and to make sure that such wheelchair is available for its user when needed on arriving at the destination (unlike several horror stories that have been reported in our national newspapers of the wheelchair not being found at the destination!). Implementing the aims of the UNCRPD will be a breeze. And I will have occasion to tell a potential Presidential candidate, Mr. E. Sreedharan, of the NDA, that with his Metro, a last possible hope, of travel on public transport by PWD, has gone down the tubes - by showing him the records of DRA's attempts to engage CMRL over several years, that have been meticulously preserved by Vaishnavi.
And now to answer the inevitable question of why anybody should consider my `job-application' seriously, I can trot out the list of winners (which also includes me) of awards such as Nobel Prizes, Magsaysay Award, Padma Awards of all hues (Shree, Bhushan, Vibushan), Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, that have been periodically turned out by my extended family, going up to grand-uncle and grand-aunt!) After all, ours is a nation where people are made rulers because of their families! In terms of preparedness for the job, I am also a scientist, not unlike Abdul Kalam. I could then go on to enumerate my own achievements in mathematics and social awareness building of the plight of PWD.
Finally, at a time when one hears ominous slogans like `United States of South India' and echoes of the old `anti-Hindi' sentiment, it would be a good idea to opt for a person who can't speak Hindi to save his life, and to give a semblance of an assurance to the southern states that non-Hindi speakers are still very much a part of the fabric of the Indian tricolour. This is obviously not a carefully thought out idea (or job application) of mine; I do not want people to take me too seriously and mock me for even thinking of this as a possibility.
On the other hand, just think what this would mean for the several millions of PWD in our country - a measure of how seriously their plight is taken by our Govt. being indicated by their calling us Divyangjan, while they have not given a moment's thought to finding out just how many such divine creatures there are! Just imagine what a PWD in the Rashtrapathi Bhavan can mean for the lives of the undetermined number of our divine PWD!
