Pune is so wheel chair unfriendly !!

It is so true that one does not realize a lot of what is happening around you until it actually affects you.

My father recently suffered from a stroke due to which he had to move around only in a wheel chair for a couple of days. Being a person who has been very active all his life I tried to ensure that we take him out as often as possible. It was during these outings that it struck me like a BOLT OF LIGHTNING out of the blue ... ! "Pune, the IT hub of India, a cultural super city and a university city is so wheel chair unfriendly. Pune does not care for wheel chair bound citizens."


Most malls, restaurants, shops, cinemas, commercial & residential establishments do not cater for a person in a wheel chair. Most entrances have stairs without ramps, elevators locations & sizes not catered for a person in a wheel chair. Passages, doors, corridors, product displays & billing stations designed in such a manner a wheel chair would not even fit. The toilets and rest rooms would be a nightmare and at times totally inaccessible for a disabled person. Of course parking for a normally abled person is disastrous so who would care for the disabled.

I happened to mention this to a person who has been in a wheel chair for the last 16 years and he told me that it was even worse earlier!!. He continued to say that we do have the laws and building codes in place to ensure that disabled citizens are catered for but these are not adhered to in majority of cases and no one seems to mind. He told me that if one went abroad especially to the USA, the disabled are catered for FIRST and you would not feel the inconveniences of being in a wheel chair.

Pity, it took my father getting a stroke to make me realize just another one of those crucial human issues involving compassion and care we have chosen not to care about ... shame on us as a people.

Epilepsy ! then this school is not the right place for you.

My daughter is really the light of my life. She is a happy & caring child who loves to do something all the time and 'goodness gracious' for her life has so much to offer and so much to do, there is just so little time to do it all. Constant Action all the time.

She is in the 4th standard in a good school in Pune but unfortunately due to some some complications which she had at birth she is facing some issues with her academics due to which I might be considering moving her to a smaller school where the teacher-student ratio is high and she can do stuff at her own pace. Unfortunately she is also an epileptic but her episodes are mostly controlled

So in my hunt for another school I reached this 'reputed' school in Wagholi - Pune. I introduced myself to the principal and began to explain the issues that my daughter was having and why I felt moving her out from the present school would be better for her. The conversation then reached a stage where I mentioned she was an epileptic and suddenly like a 'BOLT OF LIGHTNING' out of nowhere, the whole attitude of the Principal and the conversation changed. Without even letting me explain more about her condition, she very officially told me that this school is located at the outskirts of the city where if any emergency arose it would take time to respond, there is no one in her school to handle the child's medication and and this school would not be suitable for my daughter as she is an Epileptic.

Whoa ! I nearly fell off the chair with this sudden turn of events. To me I would consider it as Modern day discrimination!

Yes, I do understand that an epileptic child is an additional responsibility for the school but she is NOT some child with a deadly contagious/life threatening disease or something like that. She is just like other children but with a condition that needs monitoring and educated care. She has been in a Convent school for the last 6 years and never once did I feel this unwarranted attitude from them so this new reaction of this principal was new to me.

What really got me was that the Principal of this school did not even bother to find out whether this child was on medication, were the episodes under control, what were the frequency of the episodes, what is to be done if she gets an attack etc.. nothing. She just heard the word "epilepsy" and without hesitation she was quick to inform me her school is not suitable for my child.

For the very first time in my life I experienced this reaction against 'epileptics'. Till today it was something I just read about, heard about but now it was my turn to unfortunately experience it.

Yes, I am hurt, offended and my daughter is the light of my life but what according to me was shocking was this educated 'illiterate' attitude of a Principal towards 'epilepsy'.

Madam Principal , being 'elite' is not about being rich & famous, being 'elite' about being a good human being filled with compassion and knowledge. I thought that being a Principal of a school, you would know that.