A scientist, artist, and writer, Manohar Devadoss was leading a happy and fulfilling life with his wife, Mahema. But their lives were turned upside down by a tragic road accident that left Mahe paralysed below the shoulders for life.
Around the same time, Mano was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, a degenerative retinal disorder, which eventually made him go blind. But the couple never lost heart, refused to complain, and instead tackled life's challenges head-on. For more than three decades, Mano remained Mahe's most faithful nurse and attendant.
Mahe and Mano is a chronicle of their extraordinary life together and the ways in which they triumphed over adversity.
MANOHAR DEVADOSS is a recipient of the prestigious Padma Shri award. Due to a degenerative retinal disease, Mano no longer has colour perception, and the little he can see is as if seen through a pinhole. Using special eyedrops that help dilate his pupils, strong lights, and special magnifiers, along with a photographic memory and an uncompromising attention to detail, he has made several intricate artworks over the years. He and Mahe would work on a special set of greeting cards every year. Mano made the drawings and Mahe prepared the brief accompanying write-up. They donated the sales proceeds of the cards to charity. Mano has written seven books and these have seen a total of twenty-one editions.
In 2008, Mano lost his beloved wife. They were an exceptional couple who, because of their warm and charismatic personalities, are a continued inspiration to their readers and everyone associated with them.
Creation shields within its coffers, not only the rarest of stones like diamonds, but precious gems of human beings. Among those rarest of gems are Mahe and Mano and the story of their eventful life amidst ordeals is sure to enter into the annals of Chennai.
If one desires to learn the art of living, loving, and giving with grace, a reference to the lives of Mahe-Mano is mandatory. In this millennium, when marriage has descended to a mere coexistence of convenience, this special couple could teach all humanity how to live, savouring every shade and hue of the manifold strands of pleasure and pain, and converting the chance of being together as husband and wife at home into an artistic experience rather than a mechanical coexistence.
Even today, Mano teaches everyone whom he meets, how to translate pain into joy and convert even the physical labour of nursing an immobile companion into one of joyous sharing. Their indomitable will helped them metamorphose the twin challenges—the failing vision of Mano and the quadriplegia of Mahe - into a life of ebullience, fellowship, benevolence, and creativity.
From their book of life, there are lessons to cherish about what it means to treasure the kinship with all those whom we meet in our lives, besides our blood relations. Fellowship yields unceasing reverberations of great experiences, and this noble couple related with everyone, irrespective of age, gender, caste, or class. Since there was perfect harmony in their being, they have always been able to strike a friendly chord even with strangers.
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