People of Determination

As we complete two years of this section, here is our experience of curating the PoD section.

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From the Desk of Editor

As ALSphere Magazine turns two, we are happy that we have created a rich wealth of resources under our ‘People of Determination’ section.

When we started the magazine in the March 2022, we thought it relevant to include a section on PoD as we have a community dedicated to the same under the aegis of ALS Parwaaz. With Nisha Tandon initiating the first few write-ups, it became an engaging and fulfilling assignment for both of us to brainstorm every month and come up with something interesting and informative to share with our readers. We wanted to create awareness in the society to be more sensitive and empathetic towards Special Needs people.

As I worked on the articles month after month, I felt a close connect with the community. I started to understand the challenges of Special Needs people, their parents and siblings, and the need for a more conducive environment and social acceptance. The experiences of parents rife with their struggles, their emotions, and achievements of their children moved me to the core. Their stories were inspiring beyond measure. Each one had played an influential role in the lives of their children and nurtured unique human beings.

We also interviewed the NGOs working in this field, and sought opinion of the experts in order to contribute our bit. Every issue opened my mind to a world I had totally been oblivious of. I began to empathize with the efforts and journeys of those people, and it became more than just a section to be catalogued every month.

I appreciate the continued efforts of Nisha Tandon, the unrelenting support of Zeba Hashmi, and the trust of Manoj Krishnan for helping this section become a regular feature of the magazine.

We hope the section has been useful to our readers. We would continue our endeavour to provide more insights in the field. There’s much more that needs to be done in this area, but we believe that a journey of thousand miles begins with a few steps. We, surely, would continue to step forward.

Vandana Bhasin

From the Pen of Writer

Being a mother of a child with special needs hasn’t been easy for me, especially in the early years when I was struggling to accept the fact that Anoushka isn’t going to be like her older sibling. The fact that she would be completely dependent on me gave me jitters.

With a determination to defy every word the doctor had said, I took it upon myself to ensure that she led a normal life as much as possible. It became my mission to help her out. Along the way, I began to document her journey and share it on various writing portals, mostly to create awareness and get mothers out of guilt zone that they are responsible for the disability of their child. Gradually, people started reaching out to me for advice, and more so to share their stories, experiences, dilemmas and achievements.

Meanwhile Manoj Krishnan, the Founder of Asian Literary Society, reached out to me to contribute towards this community by sharing my thoughts. ALSphere magazine took shape with Vandana Bhasin as the Editor. Gradually, we connected with experts in the field to share their insights so we could help the parents who needed guidance. We got in touch with caregivers to share the challenges faced by them in raising their child with special needs. Every story that was shared had a lesson. We heard many success stories from mothers about how their kids had overcome challenges and became achievers in their own ways. We interviewed various philanthropists, whose unconditional support in starting initiatives benefited thousands of people who had no direction. It was heartening to learn that despite their struggles when they began their journey, they relentlessly followed their dream and accomplished them. We saw hope.

It has been an emotional journey, writing articles related to People of Determination. It’s been two years since we began, and every month unravels new learnings, something to motivate us to keep working together to create awareness and give hope to others.

Nisha Tandon