The best things happened to S Pushpa Venugopal when she least imagined it. Fourteen years ago, this 66-year-old homemaker embarked on a journey which motivated many others to follow the path. In a lean frame, this soft spoken lady looks like any other senior citizen but a small chat with her soon throws light on why and how her friends, family and the members of Spurthi Vision Care Society are motivated by her energy and perspective.
How it started
She shares an incident that pushed her to take a new step after her husband Venugopal passed away. Her domestic help had abandoned her a deaf and dumb son on the road. “Her statement was ‘Errodu, vaadini vadilesa.” With the help of my friend Swarna Kapoor, we brought him back, got him medicated and then enrolled him in Sreekaar Upkaar for his education,” she recalls. Living close to a blind school also had an effect, she says; it opened up a new world to her. With a family in sports, a endeavour by Spurthi Vision began to help the visually-challenged participate in fitness activities and sport like cricket. “There used to be six teams play full-fledged cricket. We organised 20-20 tournaments spread over three days at Gymkhana grounds,” she recalls.
She was amazed at how the game revolved around sound for the specially abled. “The blind format is different. It was amazing to see how they fielded or went for the ball hearing the sound; the way they bowled on to the stumps was beautiful.” She credits active members who helped her build the events and still contribute: Swarna Kapoor, Arut Prakash, Tadepalli Sastri, Lakshmi, Ranjith Kumar and Sampath Shankar.
At 80, Pushpa who is herself partially blind and deaf, considers age just a number. She speaks about the things she learnt seeing and interacting with challenged individuals. “I learnt how one can move around and be happy with what one has; that nothing will stop you when you have the will to do it. I had the pleasure of seeing them come together. They never think of their disability. The students were also given clothes and shoes for the event.”
After conducting the event annually for more than a decade, the foundation now holds a mini marathon for the specially-abled with an intention to create a day of joy for them. Ranjit, a volunteer at the Society shares the focus is to have extracurricular activities for the specially abled children. “School provides education but sadly these children are are not taken out at all. We want them to have fun and enjoy.” Pushpa’s networking skills and goodwill have helped the organisation with the funds, he points out.
As a Writer
Pushpa has also written three books, which combine sports with fiction.
Sampath, another volunteer states how she would write her thoughts with pen and paper but having learnt new computer applications, she does most of her work on her laptop now. “Sometimes she is very worried when she is not able to save it. She will be like ‘come and help me’,” he smiles adding her energy is infectious and inspires youngsters to go forward with a positive bent of mind.
Ranjit points out she is curious about modern stuff. “She tries to understand how live-in relationships works. She asks how girls and boys party and wants to know all the cultural stuff. I think she is writing a book,” he laughs.