I like this picture because she looks so proud and beautiful standing!
One afternoon in Vizag, several years ago, I received a call from Sai Padma. She had read a story of mine in Thulika and wanted to be friends. At that time I knew her as a translator of Telugu Stories into English.
After a while, I found out that she was a victim of two maladies. One was polio, and the second was a society which blamed her medical condition on her parents’ Inter-Caste Marriage, (both of them are doctors).
Then I found that she ran an organisation which raises funds for the disabled, runs hostels for underprivileged children of various categories and is a tireless campaigner for accessibility.
She is the president of an organization called Global Aid. She uses her singing talents to raise funds and increase awareness about making places accessible for the disabled. She has traveled abroad and given television interviews.
She has also had the guts to get married recently (that takes a lot of courage even otherwise 
) and hopes to be a mom, God willing. Her husband is a Buddhist.
She has three blogs on wordpress : Accesseverywhere and Lotusbeats snd Saipadma. She is very active on facebook. She is a Chartered Account and Marriage Counsellor and does so much pro bono work.
I admire her because I am not like her at all. I don’t think I can ever be. But I am glad that people like her are there to do real work and help people.
Sometimes she calls me for scriptural consultancy. And she is very relieved to know that there were many good examples of inter-caste marriages in our Puranas and that they had fine children. She is happy to know that great rishis like Parasara and Veda Vyasa said we must make an effort towards what we want to achieve and not leave everything to fate. She keeps encouraging me to research Vedas and spread that knowledge. She says many people need to know the truth.
She is a tremendously positive and courageous person. Very outgoing and people oriented.
This is her channel on youtube : http://www.youtube.com/user/abilityglobal
The work that she does qualifies as Karma in my view because it leads to chitta suddhi - even one who knows about her work feels pure.
It demonstrates that it is not your body that determines your greatness.. but your purpose. And she has dedicated her life to a noble purpose! If you want to help or encourage her contact her on Global Aid or leave a comment on one of her blogs : http://saipadma.wordpress.com/
My father and son always tells me that happiness lies in selfless service to others. My uncle said that when we decide to give, we become quickly satisfied and happy and when we decide to take, we are never satisfied and always unhappy! This is the secret of happiness. Do something for someone who is not related to you! Feels good!
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