The first 5 years of my marriage life were torturous, terrorized and abusive. In this time, I became a mother of 2 kids, and Even they became victims of their father’s bad temper and abusive ill treatment. I kept trying to make things work, but with no success; it just got worse! If I wanted to gift them a quality life, I knew I had to seriously do something about getting the children and myself out of the mess we were in. There was a time when I was thinking of killing my own 2 children and myself, to get out of our torturous existence; but thankfully I did not have the courage to do so!
And then I realized that I had to first become economically independent, and that meant finding employment. But how? I was left with a broken body, a shattered soul, no qualifications, no money and a huge disability! Rejected by all I was advised to carry on suffering till somehow my children grew up, who then would help me to live a better life! But I just had to do something to make our lives worth living, for that is what we all deserved! I had to start to earn money! At that time the only skills I possessed were being a good homemaker and a reasonably good typist, and I had a very basic knowledge of music and I was blind.
And then suddenly, after contemplating and pondering for more than over a year, the idea of becoming an aerobics instructor came while watching Aerobics classes on TV. I had to almost force Veena Merchant, the lady who brought Aerobics to India at that time, to train me as an instructor. As there was no blind aerobics instructor known then; Veena did not know how to train me, but with my persuasion and hard work, in 1988 I became the only and first blind Aerobics Instructor known!
In April that year, I opened my own classes in two locations in South Delhi. My classes were a huge success; as loads of people came to exercise with me; the fact that I was blind and they were fine did not seem to matter! I enjoyed every bit of it, as I knew that this was the golden key to my freedom and joy!
