Puttur: Abdul Razak, Physically Challenged Vendor, Shows Way to Others
 
Report and Pics: Arun Uppinangady
Daijiworld Media Network – Puttur (RD/SP)
 
Puttur, Dec 8: People have since ages, strongly come to believe that they should work and earn their daily bread and lead a respectable life in the society. Abdul Razack, 36,  a vendor from Uppinangady in the taluk, has stood strongly by this belief, in spite of his 70 percent physical disability. Through his ideal life, he has set an example to people like him by proving that physical disability does not come in the way of leading an honourable life, if one stands by the commitment to live independently and respectably.
 

Abdul Razak, a victim of polio since childhood, is a resident of Gandibagilu in the limits of Koila village, near here.  His physical disability has crippled his movements greatly.  Owing to his disability, Abdul Razak could not find any job. Moreover, he is an uneducated person.  Despite his disability, Abdul Razak was married-off by his parents, when he was 24 years old.  Now, he has a family of three children, wife and mother, all of whom need to be looked after and supported by him.
 
Abdul Razak was on the look out for a job that could sustain his family, since he realized that whiling away time would only contribute to his problems. The idea of setting up a petty shop at Uppinangady, a few kilometers away from his native village, struck him then.
 
With a little money in hand, he took up the task of setting up a petty shop by the side of a road at Uppinangady, but his shop was demolished by the civic authorities within a few weeks, since it was an illegal construction. 
 
A good Samaritan, Hameed Hussain, proprietor of Hotel Habib, whose eatery is located near the Uppinangady bus stand, was moved by the plight of Abdul Razak, who used to frequent Uppinangady, in search of some means of finding a sustainable source of income.  Hameed Hussain permittedAbdul Razak to set up a petty shop in a portion of his premises, without demanding any monetary consideration in return for this favour.  Abdul Razak, making use of this kind gesture, started running the petty shop, by stocking tobacco, betel leaves and other fast moving items.  His daily earnings from the shop and Rs 400 monthly physical disability pension he receives from the state government, has enabled him to sustain his family.
 
Abdul Razak has proven that a determined person can look beyond his physical disability and earn a livelihood for his family like any other normal human being, if he does not get bogged down by self-pity. The youths who waste their precious life and idle away the time at their disposal in spite of being able-bodied, have a lesson or two to learn from the life of Abdul Razak.