In this piece, Maitreya Shah shares with us, his experiences with disability, and the impacts it has on socialisation.
Living with a disability brings with it some of the most tortuous questions of navigating through the struggles of life; forming at times, what I call the existential escapades.
Socializing and all other forms of interactions involve feelings and experiences which can be perplexing and disorientating, as disability forms one of the defining features of one’s identity; its role in both aiding, and obstructing the social experiences is something I have dealt with in my time at GNLU. Usually, the pre-conceived notions about a person with disability might have been the primary barriers to people’s interactions with me; the already prevailing law school environment only intensifying it. The complication however arises only when the same disability actually becomes the primary factor helping people interact with me. Somehow, disability, that is prevalent in more than 15% of the world population, still generates quite a bit of curiosity amongst people; something that I have always had the forcefully bestowed responsibility of satisfying. Hence, no matter how intensely do I investigate sociologically, the question of my disability’s role in shaping my social experiences will always remain convoluted, simultaneously limiting my presence in the social circles.
When the very act of interacting has so many complications attached, forging friendships and relationships has obviously been a painstaking process all throughout. Blindness, and the attached barriers, are not usually an easy fit in the social circles obsessed with the fancies of physical attractions, social validations, and the overtly competitive process of joining the popular groups of godly reverence. Not to mention the inaccessibility of activities like sports and recreation, parties and gatherings, hangouts or hookups; coupled with the hesitation of including a blind person in their circles.
For someone with a disability, this exclusion perhaps also begins at the very entry-points of such interactions, be it the committees and centers, classroom and mess, or even hostels that are usually referred to as friendly places. I have often wondered how accessibility-related arrangements are so conveniently misinterpreted to be the corners meant for the ‘disabled’, not worthy of being touched by the nondisabled. To illustrate, a particular table in the mess, selected to facilitate the service offered by the mess staff, conveniently turns into the ‘disabled corner’ of the mess that no one wants to ‘touch’.
As against this, it is also quite appalling how people who decide to befriend a disabled person become so inspirational; their friendship viewed as charity of some kind. Many on the campus, with closer bonds with the disabled peers, have vehemently denied such claims before, only wanting people to stop judging their friendships.
To however say that socializing for me at GNLU has only involved such restricting experiences would be to disregard some of the most wonderful beings I have had the privilege of forming bonds with. The past five years have given me some of the most cherished relationships of my life so far. From intellectually stimulating conversations to food explorations, and from committees to internships, I have had the best time. Not only did they understand my disability so well, but I also found my solace in the company of a few of them. To say that with intellectual superiority, GNLU also gets people with an immense respect for diversity would not be an overstatement.
While I make several generic statements about disability and socializing, it is also worth acknowledging my privileges that perhaps played a significant role in my social inclusion at the University; not underplaying the experiences of someone with intersectional identities being much different, with possibilities of also being worse. Nevertheless, I am sure of one similar element about the common experiences of all my disabled peers; the inverse existence of a microcosm of comfort, and a macrocosm of exclusion. At a deeply personal level, GNLU has been a mix-bag of social experiences for me; however worth cherishing.
Jury's Out 