After a break of almost two years from blogging I thought of restarting my journal sharing some of my travel experiences...Hope you like the story!
Being used to of spa in hotel
during exotic and luxury holidays. I was a bit skeptical when I heard "best
remedial therapy in Kuala Lumpur is offered by blind people", "treatment
by a blind masseur". Yep that's exactly what I said with raised eyebrows
when I first heard about it. "I was impressed " is an utter
understatement, although initially I felt a bit awkward walking into Shu-Jin
Therapy Zone near Bricksfield AKA little India. This place was no five star
standard but was clean and had basic amenities (there is another place
"massage by blind man" next door but I just followed trip advisor
reviews and landed here) I found the adage "hands are blinds eyes"
completely true and what if you could leverage your extra developed touch
senses for remedial massage.
Kenny my therapist was a middle
aged gentleman with total vision loss, initially I felt a bit sorry for him but
more than that I admired his dignity and integrity for earning a respectable living.
He had every inch studio counted on his
finger tips, from towels to oils, security lockers to pillow location, table
adjustment every movement across the studio was counted in his head. It was
pretty much like Bollywood comedy Badshah's nostalgic scene where SRK plays a
blind man to woo twinkle (on his wacky detective assignment) It was pretty much
like his dialogues two steps left, two steps right everything in order "no
problem memsahib"!
Kenny G began his work and
likewise his name that he shared with famous musician melody had begun flowing
through his hands. He could touch temples of my forehead and tell I had sinus
blockage and same for in my stiff back. We talked and exchanged few
similarities between India and Malaysia including Hindu and Muslim co-existing
happily. He shared few tales from his village and then asked me a question that
is still baffling me till date... What does blind people do in India for
living?
I was quite for a while busy
thinking in my head what should I tell him? what do they do beside begging? I
said, they make candles quickly recalling during Diwali my dad used to buy
heaps of candles from blind school next to his workplace to support their
education. My list was running out of options for a respectable living and I
recalled again I have seen some phone booths operated by blind people (mobiles
have now killed that business model) and that was pretty much it. Actually it
was a bit hard to let my mind wander off this tangent while being given such a
wonderful back massage so I quickly consoled myself out of guilt for blind beggars
in India and focused on songs of revival that my muscles were humming with
Kenny G.
Apart from suggestions he gave me
for reducing my back pain, he coined this brilliant idea in my head to train
blind people offer foot massage and open charitable parlours in Delhi to help
them earn good living. Not sure after Modi-fication, the government in India
would be willing to invest in such Ideas but at-least our corporate should do
something about it, anyhow time to finish this blog entry and sleep. As 3/4th
of cabin seems to be enjoying Air Asia's hospitality in super cramped economy
seats and must have gone into macroscopic neural oscillation by now... AKA deep
sleep :-)
Another bloody 6 hours of flying
in luxury and I'll be home, hasta la vista baby!
Note: This blog is not intended
for promoting shujin's business but shear admiration of the noble idea! Please
refer to trip advisor reviews before deciding to make your mind... Thanks!
Note 2: Guy in photo is not me (just some random traveler excited to share his pic :-)
Note 2: Guy in photo is not me (just some random traveler excited to share his pic :-)
