“ There are going to be times when we can’t wait for anybody.
Now, you’re either on the bus or off the bus. ”~ Tom Wolfe
We started Latika Vihar as a children’s centre in 1994 and as far as I was concerned, that was plenty. It took all my free time and energy to staff, fund and operate it and with three of my own children to bring up as well, I was satisfied I was doing enough for the world.
Mr Roy (Latika Roy’s husband) was not and he never missed a chance to tell me so. He came almost every day, catching me in the morning at home, in the afternoon at the centre, in the even-ing at home again. When he wasn’t bugging me, he was pestering Ravi. “Start something for handicapped kids,” he pleaded. “Just something small. A little school. A school for handicapped chil-dren.”
For nearly a year, I dithered. I semi-committed to the idea, but never fully got on board. Predictably, nothing happened. It stayed a half-baked plan which inspired no one.
Then all of a sudden, I made a decision. Vina Srivastava, a mentor, founding member and very dear friend, took me aside one day and explained a few things. “If you want to do this,” she said “you need to commit to it. Seven Years. Minimum. It will have to be your life. You will not be able to think or do anything but this. Seven Years. Are you ready to decide?”
Why this didn’t frighten me off I have never understood, but it didn’t. It galvanised me. I suddenly understood that the only thing stopping Karuna Vihar from happening was my own indecision. My wavering, my hesitation. The moment I committed, everything fell into place. The right people started applying for jobs. Paula arrived to train our team. Volunteers materialised. Friends began to donate. We got our first grant from the Sir Ratan Tata Trust.
Vina, who passed away in September, taught me about the power of deciding. That magic wand has stayed with the Foundation as we have grown and flourished these past 20 years and it has stayed with me as a human being too. The power of decision is what transforms tragedy into op-portunity, vulnerability into genius, isolation into inspiration. By the simple act of deciding how we will look at the circumstances we are in, we stop being victims and become powerful agents of change in our own lives and in the world.
I’ve seen it happen hundreds of times. So have you. It’s how a child who was abused grew up to become Barry Crimmins – an advocate and a champion for children at risk. It’s how Deepa Kaushlam extricated herself from a violent relationship, went on to make a new life for herself and her children and now offers hope and concrete support to other women in the same situation. It’s how Andrew Solomon acknowledged and embraced his identity as a gay man and now lives open-ly in the world as a husband, father and role model for others to see and follow.
They made a decision.
We did too. And that’s how the Latika Roy Foundation was born. But one decision is never enough. We have to go on deciding every single day: to drive that bus, to turn that next corner, to wait for that next passenger. Because now that we are underway, we know at last what this bus is called. Its name is Inclusion.
-–Jo Chopra
