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“People should recognise me for my talent, not for my height”

When Som Bala (60) was a single working woman living on her own in Pali district, Rajasthan, she checked the matrimonial columns. The youngest of seven children, she had lost both parents and although she could fend for herself she wanted a steady life partner. She was almost 40, and since she was born with dwarfism and a mild hearing impairment, she knew how hard it would be to find a match. She answered the ad of Rajesh Bhandari, who was five years older than her, a polio survivor and wheelchair user, and the owner of a petrol pump in Jodhpur. They got married in a simple ceremony with just a few relatives attending, since their parents weren’t too happy about the alliance.
 
The marriage market crashes by several hundred points the moment disability is part of the trading. But thriving disabled persons are tough enough to handle social prejudices, and Bala is no exception. Her father ran a transport business. Although he and his wife had little formal education, they were eager to educate all their children. Bala’s father died when she was in Class 7. Her mother saw to it that she completed high school and insisted that she learn some skill. At first she tried tailoring, which she found difficult, and then typing, which she struggled with because of her short fingers. But her mother wouldn’t let her give up. The girl who had got an award in school for “best handwriting” practised hard and became an ace typist!
 
Armed with her 70-words-per-minute credential, she joined a chartered accountancy firm in Bhilwara and stayed in a rented house. Her boss and her mother urged her to study further and so, five years after school, she completed her BA from a private university while she was working. She later worked for another chartered accountancy firm for a few years. Then, after taking a subsidised loan through the District Industries scheme, she opened a typing centre in her house which she operated for a year and a half.
 
In 1994 Bala applied for a typist’s job at Vidyawadi Marudhar Mahila Shikshan Sangh, an educational institution for women, in Pali District. What she wrote in her application caught the attention of the employer: “My height may be short but I am not short on my skills”! She was given hostel accommodation as well, and worked there for almost 10 years. She quit when she married Rajesh in 2004 since it wasn’t feasible to commute from Pali to Jodhpur 70 km away.
 
Their son Dherya was born in 2007. Bala narrates how, during pregnancy, the doctor asked her to check for abnormalities in the foetus, probably because of her age. “I was scared to do the test because – what if! So I prayed to god for a healthy baby and we had a son. Our family was complete.” Dherya is now writing his Class 12 exams. Rajesh had sold his petrol pump to invest in a couple of business ventures, which failed; Bala’s savings kept them afloat. A month ago he opened his own mobile sales and repair shop.
 
Bala likes to cook and keeps experimenting. She likes to visit religious places. She is also fond of music and writes and sings bhajans – she sang one for our EGS interviewer! Rajesh is President of Aadeshwar Divyang Seva Sansthan, an organisation in Jodhpur (with related operations in the Pali region) focussed on serving individuals with disabilities, and working toward the welfare of the disabled community. He says although there are many schemes for the disabled, they have little awareness of these schemes. Running an NGO is not easy, he says, as it is hard to mobilise money and government funds are slow to arrive.