A leader, in the making – Swarnalakshmi Raviduraikannu

“Mam, would you mind using the word “Progeny”? Progeny not only means children, but offspring of animals, plants and anything alive. My suggestion to use this word was well received when I spoke on Inclusive Education for children with disabilities, in the UN last year (April 2016). And inclusiveness is a broader term and my understanding of the same is evolving”. 

The above is the reply of 18 year old Swarnalakshmi, to my question on inclusiveness, who has represented India for the fourth time in the UN and who is currently pursuing her second year B.A Political Science in MCC Chennai. She is also the PM of Inclusive National Children’s Parliament (INCP) and member of Youth Parliament, which is in its Council stage.

For Swarnalakshmi, inclusiveness is not a mere term, but a journey of several years. Her first seed for inclusiveness started from her. “Disabilities cannot retard me in any way. I always think “What next?” in any situation. And I never want to be viewed special or pitied for being visually challenged”. Her self-esteem exudes as she talks.

2014, was a year of struggle for her. She wanted to pursue her studies taking political science in a main stream school. But the then CM of Pondicherry would rather make any other school of her choice a special one. She politely but firmly declined the offer.

She said, “With 92% marks in my 10^th Standard, I decided to choose Political Science for further studies. But getting admission in the main stream school was not easy. Can a person with disability, be prevented from doing mainstream education? While speaking to the CM, I mentioned about the law in the constitution that allows children with disabilities to have mainstream education. This strengthened my question, “WHY no inclusion?” Finally her wish was fulfilled.

Her leadership travels to the UN started off with zest, after she was rejected in the Mauritius Common Wealth Interview, in 2012. Her honest answer to the question, what if she was not given a seat while she was travelling in a bus, made her lose the opportunity. The answer was “No difference”, true to her conscience.  She might have failed to impress the judges, but not her mom, Lakshmi Devi, who foresaw, a big opportunity. And her mom was right! Starting from 2013 till last year she had been the special invitee to the UN, to give talks on inclusive education. Swarnalakshmi relates this incident as one that turned over a new leaf in her life. It gave a larger perspective of her life.

Public speaking is an art that requires good language and communication skills. While Swarnalakshmi attributes her language skills to her father Raviduraikannu, she attributes her confidence to her mother. As part of Children Parliament and the Youth Parliament council, she and her team have addressed various social issues.

“Thanks to Father Edwin, I was able to travel from concepts to reality, when he brought to my attention about a labour case concerning child Bhavani from Dharmapuri. For the first time I became aware of the severity of ill-treatment meted out to women and children. Through our child parliament we extricated her from her perilous state and today she attends conferences in Delhi. Also we enabled her mother to get a Ration card, by giving a petition to an eminent person and thus the curtain went down on her 13 years of prolonged ordeal”.

She replied, “Confidence and leadership“, when I asked her to define herself succinctly. But in my opinion I look up on her as one having, Integrity of thought, speech and action. Also this achiever encourages women to enter politics without being subservient to oppressive powers. As our conversation went on, I understood she is a multi talented personality. Music has been a fascination for her which many of the Lit The Light members are aware of. Her list continues with Chess, keyboard and swimming too. 

Here is the list of awards which are no doubt, feathers on her already embellished cap.

Year	Award	Awarded by
2013	Young Achiever	Chutti Vikatan
	Little Phoenix
2014	Child Leader	Mugil Social Welfare
	Malala Award
2015	Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam Award
	Living Hellen Keller	Lion’s club
	Mega Women’s Achiever Award	Mega TV

Watching a plant grow is more fascinating than the plant itself, because, you get to see many of the beautiful sunshine moments.

An hour long interview with SwarnaLakshmi was truly rewarding and the above aptly describes my spirits in knowing a real leader getting shaped, true to the title of this article.

I wish her all the best on behalf of Lit The Light, in all her endeavors, including improving her water intake and going to bed early, that she considers as her areas of improvement!

 Below are few links on Children Parliament and Swarnalakshmi:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCWND7uKtjI – UN talk 2013

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUK3iViK0hI – Interview to Sun TV

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9C2j9LvHD0 – RedPix Interview

http://blog.kindernothilfe.org/de/archives/3403 - I too have a dream

http://www.childrenparliament.in/ - About Children Parliament

Article by Anuradha

Looking for an Inspiration? Here is a Role model - Mr.Mahendran

Winners Never Quit..Quitters Never Win!!!

You might have heard and also read about so many differently abled heroes. Here’s another one, to be inspired. Mr.V. Mahendran, born on April 7^th, 1984, in Thiraviyanagar, a village, near Thenkasi, Thirunelveli district, Tamilnadu for Sri.S.Vellaisamy & Selvi, the parents. His parents were farmers. This 34 yrs old inspiring cricket player has played in South Zone (Tamilnadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Kerala) tournaments representing Tamilnadu over 10 yrs ago. He has achieved several awards for his hard work and dedication for cricket under visually challenged, para sports category. 

Unfortunately, during the years he was on the field as a player, there wasn’t much support or awareness about the Visually Challenged Cricket, because of which there wasn’t much adequate aid from the Government for the game.  These unsupportive situations made way for the formation of Tamilnadu Cricket Association for Visually Challenged, on November 24^th, 2009 by Mr. Mahendran and few of his friends. 

TN Cricket Association is supported by the sponsors and the well-wishers. There are 16 registered teams under this association.  State level tournaments are conducted on regular basis and appropriate support are given to the players to fare well in the game and also in their career through this game.  Many players got selected to play National level, and have won several rewards for the same. 

Mr. Mahendran,General Secretary of the Tamilnadu Cricket Association for Visually challenged, is married to Mrs. Rajarajeswari, and has 2 wonderful kids, a son and a daughter. He is currently working as an English teacher, at Govt. Higher Secondary School, Vijayakarisal kulam, Sivakasi, Tamilnadu, where he teaches till 10^th standard.  He is not only into cricket, but also a 9 times state level champion in Chess. 

Mahendran’s appeal to our society and the Government is to get more involved in Visually Challenged Cricket and support the players by sponsoring and appreciating their talents and hardwork.  There are other states in India, like Gujarat, which supports Visually Challenged Cricket. For our Tamilnadu, let’s join with the association in bringing more awareness towards the sports for differently abled.  

Lets all remember

Disability is not Inability!!! 

Article by Chandra

Jothy - The Rising Nightingale

16 years old Jothy would have been just one another human being if her mother, Mrs. Kalaiselvi had not noticed the blessing amidst her disability. Jothy, a visually challenged and autistic child was sent out of school as she was “not like everyone”. But her mother noticed that she possessed a talent beyond all her disability. When I asked her how did she find out that she has got an innate sense of music, she says “she was never able to sit in a place even for 5 minutes except when she was making sounds out of vessels”. This made Mrs. Kalaiselvi realize that she has got some extraordinary music skill which should be addressed. During our conversation she explained, “It was very difficult to make her sit in a place even for a while. This was the main reason why she was not taken in any schools”. Seeing this Mrs. Kalaiselvi started to probe further and found out that after 10^th standard she can take up diploma courses directly and enrolled her in Government Music College, Adyar for Diploma in vocal. The teachers in the college were really moved by her ‘Swara knowledge’ and she is now in the final year of the course. Though she was not able to read, write and understand some concepts in the normal text books she performed extremely well in college. “Highly reputed people in the industry like Ananth vaidhyanath sir were moved by her Swara Knowledge” the lovely mother happily said. Her mother helps her to prepare for the theory part of the course and Jothy plays the instrument all by herself. Apart from this she learns Carnatic music from AS Murali, who is a professor in Kalakshetra. When asked about future plan she has for Jothy, she says she is also currently pursuing DMT, a one year diploma course that would give her the knowledge of how to teach music at college level. My next plan is to enroll her in BA Violin and she says “It’s very important to equip her in all the ways to sustain in this highly competitive industry”. Her unusually stunning knowledge of swara attracts her chance to meet prodigies in the industry.

When the whole world saw what she can’t do, this mother saw beyond that and spotted the skill and she has built her whole dream around this kid. It was really difficult for me to manage her in the earlier days as she could not understand certain things a child & a girl of that age would understand. But after going to Music College, she got to interact with more people which has changed her a lot. Her communication has increased, her behavior has matured says Mrs. Kalaiselvi. During our entire conversation, I was really moved by this mother’s love and whose sole dream is to build a future for her kid. I am eagerly waiting for Jothy’s debut in G V Prakash Kumar’s next movie as he has posted in his Facebook page. 

Listen to her wonderful rendition here Kannamma cover song

Article by Sree Mahalakshmi