English TEXTUAL QUE UNIT [2M]

Both are disabled. Both are confined to wheelchair. Both have decided to live. creatively.

Firdaus Kanga- a writer and journalist - had come in a wheelchair from India in order to write about his travels in Britain. On the suggestion of his guide, Kanga planned to meet the most brilliant and completely paralysed astrophysicist. Stephen Hawking in Cambridge.

Stephen called upon all the disabled people to give wholehearted attention only to what they were capable of doing. They should not copy normal people. Olympic games organized for the disabled were a waste of time.

Kanga phoned Stephen Hawking's house from a phone booth. There he talked with Stephen Hawking's assistant and requested him to arrange a meeting with Stephen Hawking Luckily he was allowed half an hour for the interview.

Stephen Hawking was a great scientist, an astrophysicist. But he was disabled - completely paralysed, confined to a wheelchair. He wrote the book A Brief History of Time. He could express himself only through a computer.

People generally ask the disabled to be brave. Stephen Hawking truthfully admitted that he hadn't been brave. In fact, he had no choice.

The writer felt guilty talking to Stephen Hawking every time because in doing so, he forced him to respond, which was a painful job for him. There he tapped at the little switch in his hand, trying to find the words on his computer with the only bit of movement left to him. His eyes would often shut in frustrated exhaustion. The writer could feel his anguish but he had no option.

Both Stephen Hawking and Firdaus Kanga. Eire disabled. Firdaus Kanga is a writer and journalist. He lives and works in Mumbai. He was born with ‘brittle bones’ that tended to break easily. He has been confined to a wheelchair since then.

Stephen Hawking was one of the greatest scientists of our time. He suffered from a form of paralysis that confined him to a wheelchair, and allotted him to ‘speak’ only by punching buttons on a computer, which spoke for him in a machine-like voice.

Meeting another disabled person who has achieved something big, makes the disabled person feel stronger and more inspired to do better.