Jo’s Blog

Going to college in America means you are definitely going to have a roommate. And your room will be small. The room Melanie and I shared was about 9′ x 12′. We opted for bunkbeds to maximize available space (I was on the top) and we [...]

Sign language is such a beautiful way to communicate. Abstract thoughts and words transform themselves into something visual and concrete and meanings we hadn’t appreciated suddenly emerge. Contradictions too! For example, Kashvi, one of [...]

This is a story about a squeaky gate. Every day I walk back and forth to my office at least four times. I go in to work in the morning, I go home for lunch, I go back to the office in the afternoon and I go home in the evening. Sometimes I [...]

Everybody is important and everybody has a name. Ourselves, of course. So obvious. We all know our own names and it’s hard to imagine that others can forget them. Especially if that other person is their boss. Bosses hold a special [...]

For some kids, talking is hard, if not impossible. Sakshi’s cerebral palsy has given her a range of distinctive movements and she has difficulty getting words out. But while talking is tough, thinking is not. Sakshi is a bright, articulate [...]

Last year, we got a call from the Chief Minister’s office, informing us that on the occasion of his birthday, the CM wished to donate wheelchairs to our children. Since these events are usually just glorified disabled photo-ops, we were [...]

Everything reminds me of Moy Moy these days and the separation her death has imposed in our lives. So when W S Merwin died on March 15, I remembered his poem: Separation Your absence has gone through me Like thread through a needle. Everything I [...]