This is a very nice story, and teaches us a unique lesson. Without any more ado, here it goes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My husband is great at giving me surprises and this year was no less!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After a nice morning drive, he said he planned a special lunch for me. We reach the 3rd floor of a particular mall and entered an eatery whose board read, \u201c Dialogue in the Dark\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n I could make out that it was a different place because I couldn\u2019t see any people just a counter with a manager, a menu card and a bell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We walked up, he said, \u201cAha, you’re here, Happy Birthday, and we hope we make your day memorable to you.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n The manager smiled and asked us to follow him in a pathway which for some reason kept getting darker and darker, until a point I had to hold my husband because I could absolutely see nothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The manager now turned to us and said, \u201cI am handing you over to our server for the day, Sampath.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sampath greeted us warmly and began by saying, \u201c As you can see; you can’t see!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n “It’s pitch dark already and there are no sources of light inside either; please hold my hand, trust me, you are safe with me and I’ll take you to your table.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n We did as he told us, holding each other, we touched the walls to support and not trip and as promised, we were safe and reached our table.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sampath brought in our meals in 10 minutes, and asked us to enjoy !<\/p>\n\n\n\n I thought \u201c Enjoy what ..Darkness?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n And for the next 45 minutes, we ate in complete darkness!! We fumbled, we mumbled<\/em> ~ and we had to feel the roti, figure out the sabzi, chutney, water, etc. Not being able to see my husband , just able to hear each other out,<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was difficult in the beginning but as time went on , we completed our delicious meal & it was a unique experience indeed !<\/p>\n\n\n\n When we were done, we called Sampath who came promptly, we stood, placed our hand in his and walked ahead and as we headed back out towards the light I was relieved; And I could finally see the back of Sampath’s head, and THEN HE TURNED!<\/p>\n\n\n\n My jaw dropped instantaneously when I finally and actually saw Sampath ! A visually-disabled man! No eyes whatsoever!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Sampath whispered softly, \u201cWhat you experienced was not only how disabled the blind people are but also how uniquely able we are! \u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n While I almost tripped multiple times, couldn\u2019t bear the darkness beyond few minutes; they live like this all their lives!<\/p>\n\n\n\n His spirit, his positivity, his SMILE! I was humbled<\/em> and filled with a profound sense of respect for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I was literally in their shoes for 60 minutes; I felt their pain, felt their world and felt their emotions, and to say the least, their courage too ! That was empathy !<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n I thought to myself, \u201cSampath might not have eyes, but he surely has VISION\u201d<\/em>. And I would never discard right away anyone again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What a Birthday<\/em> !<\/p>\n\n\n\n ( Author unknown )<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This is a very nice story, and teaches us a unique lesson. Without any more ado, here it goes: My husband is great at giving me surprises and this year was no less! After a nice morning drive, he said he planned a special lunch for me. We reach the 3rd floor of a particular…CONTINUE READING<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":205,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inspiration"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.rvnair.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.rvnair.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.rvnair.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.rvnair.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.rvnair.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=204"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.rvnair.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":206,"href":"https:\/\/blog.rvnair.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204\/revisions\/206"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.rvnair.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.rvnair.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.rvnair.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.rvnair.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}