As our great nation celebrates another landmark year as a free country that decides and acts freely and fairly, as we see the usual pageantry that is associated with the day roll on like every year, there are some questions that are running in my mind. Is everyone really free in our country? Is everyone getting an equal and fair shot at life? Can everyone truly be free to live a life of their choosing?

Before you start thinking that I am some kind of anti-national person (a lot of people have been bestowed with that title recently), let me explain. I am a wheelchair-bound person. Both my right limbs are paralyzed and unusable. So why am I mentioning this here? There are millions like me in India. What’s the big deal? I will tell you what the big deal is: just see a list of things that I haven’t ever done in my 44-year long life so far and you will understand what I am trying to say.

1. I have never been to a movie with my teen aged son (not even one)
2. I have never been to a PTA meeting at his school
3. I have never been to a temple in the past decade
4. I have never been to my bank even once after opening an account there
5. I have never been to a dentist in the past five years
6. I have never traveled by train or bus in the past decade

That list is just indicative and not exhaustive, these six are probably things that most people take for granted in the daily life. My inability to do these things is a telling sign of what people like me silently endure in our nation. Given that I have a voice and millions don’t, you can adjust that for proportion.

Let me describe two days in my life to you. You will clearly see the difference between yours and mine then. Two days where I try to do things that everyone does. Not attempting anything great or remarkable.

The first day happened when I was just married. I was the happiest man in the world, I was married to the love of my life and she was with me for a lifetime now. There was a slightly bumpy time for me professionally during this time and was desperately looking for a job. I am a qualified post graduate Computer Engineer with a specialization in Networking and I could give anybody a run for their money technically. I started applying for jobs and most places just plainly told me on my face that they weren’t interested in hiring a “handicapped” person. I had no problems with that. One of the best known IT companies of those days called me for an interview. I was elated! But as the day progressed, I was on the other side of the spectrum.

So I walked in and cleared the technical written and oral rounds and the HR discussion too. I was expecting the salary numbers to be discussed next. But that did not happen. What did happen next was a rude shock for me. A guy who was a senior employee walked in and told me that the next round was with him. He took me to a workstation and told me to show him how I would type on the system, I was a bit flustered but then I obliged. Next he told me to open a table drawer and show him how I would take a notebook out. I did that too. Then the interview went to the next level, he took me to the men’s room and asked me to show him how I would use it (yes, you read that right).

I was totally shocked and didn’t want to continue, but then I had a family to support and not many options. So I went in and closed the door, but there was a “committee” of four people who wanted to “inspect” that process and then decide whether to hire me or not. I went home with an offer letter and a badly damaged ego with absolutely zero self-respect. Eventually, I got tired of the boss constantly “testing” me like this and left that place after a year. This was in the 1990s.

Fast forward a decade. I am in the most IT-savvy city in the country and sitting in front of the CEO of a company. He wants me to head his software development division. All goes well and I get the job! Yaay! Right?

Not exactly. You see, this office is on the fourth floor and while it has an elevator, there is no power backup. And again, there are no toilets that I can use (all of them are two to three feet high). So I ask the CEO and he immediately calls for a meeting. I am impressed, I walk into the meeting and see that the attendees are me, him and all the female staff in office. He then tells us that I will have to use the ladies room as that is the one that is on ground level in the office. I was totally shattered, I apologised to my female colleagues for the embarrassment and from that day, for the next many months, I took meds to not ‘go’ in the day time and used the restroom at home, after coming back. Beyond a point, I could not take it and my body started giving up. I had to leave that place too.

So here is what I am asking. Can we, as a nation, ensure that no other Shakthi goes through what I went through in these two days? If the answer is yes and there are changes on the ground that reflect that, I am all for proclaiming full independence. Till then, me and millions like me are silently suffering right through life for things that are normally taken for granted and that doesn’t spell freedom to us. Can we get beyond the tokenism of rail concessions, bank loans and the usual accessibility drives to get down to actual work? Tell me when we can!

Till then, I wish you a happy Independence Day! One day, I will be free too.