By Dr Jeanette Pinto –
I taught Anoop Chakravarthy a spastic student, the subject of History at the undergraduate level at St. Xavier’s College Mumbai in the late 1980’s. He was so helpless that he needed assistance to move around the campus and pursue his studies. His speech was mere guttural sounds. Years later I read with much interest an article titled “Married to a low IQ’ which appeared in the Times Review. I was amazed to learn that the story revolved around Anoop. Read on.
Jacinta a Goan girl in her mid-thirties for some unknown reason was abandoned by her parents, scorned by relatives and cheated of her life’s savings by her employers. “There were times when I was forced to forage from dustbins,” she said. One day by chance she met a man at the milk booth who wanted a bride for his 41 year old spastic son Anoop Chakravarthy. She took up the offer of social security even though it came in the form of a marriage to a spastic. “He worked at a steady job in the postal department and I was confident he would never desert me. Now I have a loving family and home to call my own,” she says teasing her husband.
Anoop does not speak much, but smiles and laughs a lot. He stutters about his marriage and says, “Jacinta is a blessing from God.” Anoop forgot he was to be married on their wedding day and the bridal party arrived to find him rubbing his eyes in sleep. “They barely had half an hour to get to the court” she says. The registrar of marriages had taken one look at the groom and refused to believe that a normal girl would marry him of her own free will. There was much discussion and hesitation, but eventually the registrar was convinced.
“Anoop is like my small brother, not my husband,” Jacinta says. In fact she is more a care giver. She lifts her husband by herself into a taxicab when he leaves for work. Also his motor movements are so weak that he has to be fed and changed. But he is trained to operate the computer at Mumbai’s main post office and brings home a salary. She also cleverly handles the barbs of neighbours who say that she has married him for money. In fact her own maid servant once asked her how she could live with a man who could not fulfil his basic duties as a husband. Jacinta was livid at the arrogance of the servant and dismissed her immediately. She has not kept a servant after that.
Some unkindly neighbours, besides passing snide remarks sow seeds of doubt in Anoop’s mind. What does he do when people say such things to him? “Nothing, he comes and tells me,” laughs Jacinta. She is fond of birds and loves her bulbuls. “My three babies” she says as she pulls the birds from their cages, clicks her tongue, and invites them to feed from her hand. “Together we are happy,” smiles Jacinta.
Life is a gift from God. No one is perfect, in that sense everyone is a ‘disabled person.’ In general parlance the term ‘disabled’ is applied to visually impaired, hearing impaired, mute, mentally challenged and other learning disabilities or suffering various handicaps. Disabilities do not reduce the dignity of the human person. Civil society must undertake the responsibility to protect and promote the lives of such people. Jacinta truly has been life-giving and has brought sunshine into Anoop’s life. She is a prolife hero. God bless her, she is indeed Anoop’s hero too, for her companionship has brought joy and meaning to his life.
Dr Jeanette Pinto, an educator for the past 5 decades, headed the Department of History was Vice Principal of St. Xavier’s College Mumbai, and retired as Principal of Sophia College, Mumbai. She is a counsellor and conductor of Personal Enrichment Programmes for students and teachers.
She set up the Human Life Committee in the Archdiocese of Bombay. As a sex educator she has given talks on Human Sexuality in India and abroad. In 2014 she received the Rachana Outstanding Woman of the Year for her Pro-life work presented by the Diocese of Mangalore. She has attended many National and International Pro-life conferences and given talks at other fora on various women’s issues.
She is author of a couple of books, her most recent ones are titled: I’m Pro-Life Are you? & Sex Talk: Parent to Child. She has also written a number of articles on a variety of themes and subjects, which have been published in research journals, The Examiner and other Catholic publications.