Life is a cinema…

The day I took the decision of starting Riya Foundation, I never ever asked myself would I be able to take up the challenge. It was an impulsive decision like many others that I had taken. But I was clear of the way I wanted to run it and what I expected.

It’s been 3 years and the journey has never been smooth. We have had our shares of success and failures. There have been questions that even I have not had answers for. I can only turn back to see that the journey has been good.

The Movie “Mr India” draws a lot of similarities in our journey of Riya. To be honest, maybe I was selfish. I wanted to create a world of my own, a world where I would be happy, a world were happiness overruled selfishness.

I stand aware that any endeavor faces tough resistance. The scene in the movie that touched me the most was the fun that we have in the small world that we have created.  It could be as simple as waking up our kids in the morning or having a good laugh at the breakfast table or an evening filled with stories and masti. When I went for advice on working with the mentally challenged I was told it’s the most difficult of all. Yes we have had our share of lows too. But a recent incident changed it all.

On one of the occasions where the caretaker had to leave on a family emergency, it left us helpless without a staff. I was cornered as I had a kid that needed the most attention and my hands were full. This is where I feel that life at Riya is blessed. One of the kids at Riya takes it upon himself to take the youngest kid to the restroom and help him with his morning duties and cleans him up. It does not end with that. He even goes the extra mile of bathing the boy and powdering him ready for the day.

This is nothing short of a day were tears roll out without an excuse. That’s when you feel hope I had a watch like which Anil Kapoor did in Mr India.

This incident is nothing short of a miracle. May be it’s these motivations that tell you life is full of surprises. I don’t know of the magic watch but I can tell you these memories are priceless and I feel one life is just not enough for this. The best way to end this blog is to say a line from the movie.