A Taste of Patience

A Taste of Patience is nothing but a desire to discover the meaning of my experiences. It is an attempt to reveal my experience with disabilities, as well as the various dimensions of illness and casualties. It is also an effort to demonstrate that reconciling oneselfto disability does not mean surrendering to its consequences or yielding to its stipulations. Instead, the key is to employ these consequences and conditions in enhancing one’s new life.A Taste of Patience is an endeavour to answer some of the many questions that occur in the minds of a lot of people regarding disabled persons. They may be relatives who find direct questions painful, or strangers whose eyes are filled with wonder and pity, assuming that a person with disabilities is neither able to endure questions nor willing to answer them. This then is an ideal book for those who hesitate to ask questions to avoid embarrassment.People with disabilities face discrimination that prevents them from benefiting from the rights enjoyed by other members of society, but writing about this is not meant to beg for pity. It is just a message to draw the attention of others, to invite them to consider the compensatory abilities that are provided to the disabled to help them overcome the malfunction of one or more of their organs. It is a call to reformulate relations with them in a civilised way that is not based on colour, gender or physical challenges. It is also an appeal to provide them with equal opportunities to lead normal lives and to improve their standard of living, giving them the chance to participate in routine life, with all its dimensions, on an equal footing.Some of those who read or criticise this book attribute my reason for writing it to a need that was generated by the suffering caused by a permanent physical injury. In fact, A Taste of Patience (and other modest attempts at writing that preceded or followed it) was not intended to compensate for the impairment of my body. I do not feel any deficiency, and I am not obsessed by the thought of proving myself to others, thus searching for alternatives that might make up for my loss.