You are doing such noble work”, people always say solemnly as they tour our school. “It must take so much patience to work with these children”.
We smile and nod and don’t say anything. If people are determined to see us as saints, whatever we say will just be used as more evidence of what they already believe.
But the truth is: we have never had so much fun in our lives. Like many others, we, too, came into this field because of a desire to “help the handicapped” or to “serve the underprivileged”. We were full of lofty ideals and noble sentiments, ready to sacrifice our own pleasure and do our bit for the good of society.
What a surprise to discover that the pleasure was our own and the good was all for ourselves!
“Surprised by Joy” is the theme of the Karuna Vihar calendar for the year 2000. We chose it because we wanted to enter the new millennium with the record set straight at last: Nobody is being noble here; none of us are candidates for canonization. We do what we do because we love it. The spirit of delight that defines our school is addictive – we find we cannot do without our daily “fix”.
In this year’s photographs, our special children are beaming and bright eyed. Their high spirits simply spill over, captivating and charming those who meet them. These are not people to pity or feel sorry for. Rather, they are to be respected and admired and learned from: how many of us know the secret of happiness that they so obviously possess?
-–Jo Chopra
