Stroke victim revamps massage spas run by the blind

MALAYSIANS KINI | Raja Iskandar Raja Mansor said he was conscious of losing the feeling on the right side of his body when he had a stroke a year and a half ago.

"I could feel my right side disappear, and I was thinking, what is this?

"(I realised) this kind of thing can happen to anyone," the 50-year-old interior and landscape designer told Malaysiakini in a coffeeshop in Brickfields.

He was there to help remodel one of the massage spas run by the blind in the area, his fourth remodelling of a massage spa in four months.

The man behind the Facebook group 'ArtAttack - the white cane project' has been "beautifying" massage spas run by the blind all over the place, from Brickfields to Sri Petaling to Bangsar.

"I'm slowly giving them a theme, a face. Otherwise, you go to their shops, it's all white, and they have paintings which are like 20 years old, because they cannot see.

He explained that beautifying their shops helped attract customers.

"It's a very funny thing because you do it for the blind, but they cannot see. It's for their customers, so the payback is a little different," he explained.

The first time he offered to "beautify" a massage spa run by the blind, he didn't plan anything behind it.

To help with his recovery after his stroke, Iskandar had started going for acupuncture and massages to improve his blood circulation.

Testing himself

One of the shops he went to in Brickfields was undergoing some repairs, so he offered to do a mural for it on one of its walls.

In a way, the right-handed designer said he wanted to test himself, to see if he could still draw.

"What I could normally do in four days, took me two weeks to finish," he related.

But he did complete it, and it soon drew many compliments from other customers, which made the blind owner happy.

That got him thinking: maybe he should "beautify" other massage spas run by the blind as well.

"Why should I stop at one shop? In the long run, I thought, let's upgrade all the shops run by the blind, because most of them have no decorations.

"It's high time somebody helped them to upgrade their looks.

"We're not feeding them, we're helping them to make a living because they're left behind," he said.

That's a noble motivation, but Iskandar admitted that this work also helped him keep depression at bay.

"While getting my health back, I need to get the drive to do something, otherwise I get depressed," he said.

Nature lover

Hailing from Kuala Lumpur, Iskandar, who is unmarried, comes from a family of mostly architects so there's an artistic line in the family, he reckoned.

Though he studied interior design locally, he is more passionate about landscape design as he loves nature.

For the past 26 years, he has been doing mainly landscaping work, though he also does interior designing upon request from his clients.

However, after his stroke, his doctor advised him against working outside due to the heat.

"So what I do is, I build gardens inside the massage spas. You can see in every shop, I do drawings of trees.

"I cannot run away from trees. There is always some element of the garden I build into the shops and they love it," he said.

He showed off pictures of the last massage spa he worked on in Sri Petaling, mostly of a mural of a huge tree in a corner of the shop he had designed to be a children's waiting corner.

Even in the current massage spa he is working on in Brickfields, there is a sizable plastic tree by the reception counter.

There is a small water fountain on the shelves made of recycled wood behind the counter, and the sound of the running water punctuated by the chirping of birds, adds to the garden-like atmosphere.

Paintings of abstract art, flowers and plants were displayed in the small but cosy waiting room.

They are all paintings he painted before his stroke, he said, and they are all for sale, with 15 to 20 percent of the proceeds going to the massage spa.

As the name of the shop is 'Massage Station', he's named each of the massage rooms after a railway station in the country, and he plans to display old pictures of the railway stations in the shop as well.

He also proudly pointed out the huge circle painted on the wall, explaining that it is a running theme.

All four of the massage spas he has worked on so far has had a huge circle painted on one of the walls, he said, to signify a sunrise.

"If you go into a massage place and you see a 'sunrise', it was probably done by me," he said.

The current shop he is working on is actually the massage spa where he did his first mural after his stroke, he revealed.

They were moving one floor up after nine years in their previous location, he said, and the original contractor they approached had quoted them an outrageously expensive price.

He decided to help them move, at a much lower cost, as he realised he could recycle most of the things from the old shop.

"I'm a recycler anyway," he said, pointing out things around the shop made from recycled materials.

No handouts

Iskandar does not do his remodelling work for free, because he believes anyone who is given anything for free will become complacent.

"I want them (the blind) to be involved also. What I do is that they will come up with half of the cost, and I find sponsors for the other half.

"They're not getting free handouts. I beautify their shops so that they can have a better fishing rod.

"This means they can get more customers and when they get more customers, they can be independent," he explained.

However, so far, it has not been easy to find sponsors, he lamented, adding that he usually approached his neighbours as well as former clients, to sponsor money or furniture.

"People are very wary, and I'm new and they might think that I'm asking for money for myself," he said.

To help cut down on costs, Iskandar revealed sometimes he sleeps at the shops he's doing the remodeling for.

He can no longer drive after his stroke, so he said he would need to use taxis to get around, which can get expensive.

"It's not comfortable and I'm not well, but it's okay," he said, adding that he's been sleeping at the current shop for three weeks.

Small team

As Iskandar is still recovering from his stroke, he gets help from a small team of five to seven people, comprising of his neighbours and volunteers from his Facebook page 'ArtAttack - the white cane project'.

They help with the stencils and painting on the walls, he said, and he teaches them techniques of drawing on walls.

Sometimes, they even bring their children and everyone gets involved, he added.

"It becomes like a family outing just to assist me. It's very enjoyable," he smiled.

During the interview, Iskandar spoke in measured tones, and every so often burst out chuckling with evident glee and pride in his work, even as he talked about how people are usually surprised that he's had a stroke when they first meet him, or when he mischievously revealed that his doctor does not know he's sort of back to work.

So it came as a surprise when he started crying while describing how his perspective on life had changed after his stroke.

"Life is short, it can go just like that. Now we are sighted, but something might happen to you on the street. You might be blind tomorrow.

"I began to see things differently, rather than just being aloof. So when you look from a different perspective, you begin to appreciate life," he said, before he suddenly turned away and started tearing up.

It took a few minutes for him to regain his composure, but he continued, "So I want to share my talents with the blind in a different way.

"Maybe they can't see, but they can feel. They also appreciate beauty in the form of art.

"That's why I called the group ArtAttack - I attack them with art so that their life becomes more cheerful," he said.

Eyes of the family

Having spent so much time with the blind, Iskandar said one of the things he's realised is that the children of the blind are very special.

"They become the eyes of the family from a very small age, because their parents are blind and they're not, so they lead the family wherever they go.

"I wish I could do a bit more for the children, because they had to grow up so fast. They're very mature kids, they missed out on their childhood.

"What I want to do is buy art materials and give it to them, so that they can enjoy their childhood," he said.

He's no longer content with just "beautifying" the massage spas though. He now wants to help them market their shops better.

"To have ideas is easy, but to convince them is hard. It's not that they're unwilling, it's that they're sceptical because no one has helped them like this.

"So I'm just going to do it, and wait for the clients' response," he said.

First, he said, he gives the shops new, artistic looks, then changes their branding, and lastly, he wants to set up a Facebook page for them and manage it for them.

Public support crucial

Asked how he planned to keep this project sustainable, he said that this was where public support would be crucial.

"Let's get together and help them in an organised manner, I can't do it alone.

"I don't have much publicity, but with this, maybe I can get more support from others," he said.

Anyone who is interested in volunteering or sponsoring cash or furniture or art materials, can contact him via his Facebook group 'ArtAttack - the white cane project'.

After doing this kind of work for the last four months, he realised that he might want to continue doing it full-time after, and not just while he is resting and recovering his health.

He had just gone to the hospital the morning of the interview, he added, and his results showed that he was progressing quite well in his recovery.

Holding up his trembling right hand and curling it close several times, he explained that he's been very lucky.

He revealed there were those who also had strokes around the same time he did, but who still could not move their hands.

"It's a bit funny, a stroke victim trying to help the blind.

"It's like the sick helping the sick; it's not easy, but I enjoy it," he said, bursting into chuckles again.

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