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ridahun

ridahun
khriam , meghalaya

Ridahun Khriam (34) is riding a deep sky-blue disability scooter on a wet tarred road. She has brownish-black bobbed hair and wears a navy blue raincoat and white sneakers. Along the road are double-storeyed concrete buildings with shops on the ground floor. The shops are shut with rolling shutters.
A smiling Ridahun, wearing a sea-blue frock that reaches just above her ankles and black sandals with ankle-support straps, stands at the entrance of a building. Behind her, over the entrance, there is a blue board with BETHANY SOCIETY SHILLONG written in large yellow block letters. On either side of the entrance there are potted plants with dark green leaves.
Ridahun sits on a stool in a room, turning the pages of a large book placed on a small, square-shaped, brown wooden table. She wears a skirt with tiny flowers on a white background, and a blue half-sleeved blouse with blue cotton lace trimming at the sleeves and around the neck. To the left of the table is a wooden cot covered with a brown bedsheet in a geometric pattern of black and yellow. A red backpack is on the foot of the bed. Behind her there is a wooden rack next to a wooden cupboard. The shelves of the rack have books and a portrait of the Virgin Mary. The locked cupboard is painted a light brown.
Profile shot of Ridahun sitting on a stool in the verandah. She wears a sandalwood-coloured cardigan over a cream blouse, and a skirt in a large floral print of brown, green, white and yellow. She holds a mug in both hands. The verandah has blue wooden railings and a white half-door. At the end of the verandah, a blue, open umbrella is placed on the ground. Behind Ridahun is a white wooden door with glass panes on the top half. The wooden front wall of the house is painted blue.
Ridahun sits with family members in the living room. From left to right: cousin Elis Mary Khriam (60), aunty Isila Khriam (80), Ridahun, niece Judith Khriam (16) and cousin Vita Mary Khriam (48). Ridahun’s cousins and aunty wear the traditional jainsem, a piece of cloth that is wrapped crosswise across the body and tied at one shoulder. Elis Mary, wearing a black front-open cardigan over a jainsem with tiny red and white checks, sits at the edge of a double sofa covered with a lacy white cloth. Isila, who has white hair, wears a red front-open cardigan over a jainsem with tiny black and white checks; she sits on a single-seater sofa upholstered in a brown and orange pattern. Ridahun sits on a similar sofa, wearing her white skirt and blue blouse with lace trimming. Judith and Vita Mary occupy a double sofa covered with a lacy white cloth. Judith, who wears black track pants and black sweatshirt, sits on the arm of the sofa. Elis Mary wears a red garment beneath her jainsem that has red and pink checks. Sunlight pours in from several white wooden windows with glass panes. The windows are covered with transparent white curtains.
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“I want to be a certified, professional Sign Language interpreter”

Ridahun Khriam (34) from Shillong, Meghalaya lost both her parents when she was a small child. She barely remembers her father and thinks she was perhaps five years old when her mother too passed away. Since she comes from a matrilineal community her mother’s eldest sister Tharsila Khriam and her daughter Queen Mary Khriam took care of her. After Tharsila died in 2016, Queen Mary, who is unmarried, became a mother to her.
 
Ridahun recalls her aunt telling her she was born at home and had no disability at birth. She thinks it possible that her left knee was injured after a fall. She remembers being taken to various doctors, and having to lie flat with bamboo stalks tied to her leg as part of treatment. Saint Peter School in Madanrting doesn’t bring back happy memories for her. Since it was difficult to walk carrying a heavy schoolbag, and paying Rs 10 each way every day for a public vehicle was not feasible, her relatives usually conveyed her to and fro. She says her schoolmates mocked her and imitated her gait. During the PT period although she yearned to join in the games she was made to sit in a corner. She often cried from sheer loneliness.
 
In eighth standard she shifted to Holy Child School but here too she faced the same challenges. Feeling like a fish out of water, she dropped out. Fortunately, help was literally around the corner, walking distance away at Roilang Livelihood Academy. This is a unit of Bethany Society which creates opportunities for persons with disabilities and the rural poor.
 
Bethany Society gave Ridahun her first taste of what it means to be embraced for who you are. It also gave her skills to earn a livelihood. At Roilang she learnt English and Math in the morning and received vocational training in the afternoon in weaving cane. Deciding to get back in touch with academics, she sat for her tenth standard exam through the National Institute of Open Schooling and passed in first division (her subjects were English, Computers, Home Science, Social Science and Economics). Next she did a six-month barefoot technician’s course for hearing aids; it rendered her eligible to go to villages and identify people with hearing loss through simple tests without the use of technology. She then took a three-month Sign Language course at Ferrando Speech and Hearing Centre and passed the exam.
 
Around 10 years ago Ridahun travelled abroad for the first time – to Geneva. She and three other persons with disabilities accompanied Steve Dom Rocha, founder-director of Pratyek and convener of the NINEISMINE campaign for child rights. “One of my good memories is when I went shopping,” she says. “I didn’t realise how very accessible everything was – the roads, the shops.” The topic under discussion was on quality education and access to health care in India’s north-eastern states. Ridahun was a Sign interpreter for a team member and also gave her own testimony. “And I got a chance to show my cultural dance,” she recalls. (She subsequently travelled to New York with a 16-member NINEISMINE team.)
 
Ridahun is now firmly entrenched in the disability space. A trophy on her bedroom shelf reveals that she was second runner up in an inclusive race. Shillong habitually organises inclusive marathons on Independence Day and Republic Day and Ridahun raced in a wheelchair. In 2013 she was donated a disability scooter for work and personal use. At Bethany Society she works on inclusive development and is a Sign interpreter as well. However, her target is to be a professional interpreter for which she would have to complete a course certified by the Rehabilitation Council of India. Meanwhile, her academic goals have expanded: she is doing her Masters in Sociology through the open university IGNOU.
 
Many people have asked Ridahun, why don’t you get surgery done for your leg? Her reply: “As long as I am able to walk, I will walk.” After all, she is financially independent, supporting her family, and helping others in the disability community. What more could she wish for to make her happy?


Photos:

Vicky Roy

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