WHEELCHAIR

This boy was wheelchair bound.

He was down with muscular disorder. He was studying in Form Four when I first met him. He was an intelligent boy and hard working in the science stream.

What I like most about him was his optimistic approach towards life.

One day, his friends from his class keep on pushing his wheelchair on the pavement of the class back and forth – back and forth, passing from one student to another. One boy pushed the wheelchair to the front. The other boy will push it back. And they did it at high speed. The boy on the wheelchair just laughed and laughed.

I had to scream at the boys for doing that, but he stopped me and said,

“Teacher, I want to be treated as equals. Don’t worry teacher. I won’t fall.”

“Please teacher, I like to be teased, laughed at, being bullied because at least I know my friend treated me as a normal human being and not as an invalid. Please teacher.”

He managed to get good results in his public exam and was offered a place to further his studies at the local university.

He then graduated and got a job in an audit firm. But he passed away two years after graduation leaving all the memories of yesteryears.

CIKGUTANYA: Boy, your spirit will live on.