29 March 2026
By Dr Navneet Bhullar
Wonderland is a small wooded paradise in a village near Jalandhar. It started as an amusement park thirty years ago. It is expensive. If you can pay Rs 1500, you get to enter the lovely wooded area and be transformed into a Thailand-like scene.
There are rides- ferris wheel, sundry swinging in circle rides, a slow roller coaster, a small lake with paddle boats, a train which goes around the lake, a splendid water park a (new) discotheque, a bhoot bangla like in Disneyland, California, a tall artificial waterfall, and an aesthetic eating area with pleasing murals on tall pillars. The food (snacks and lunch) is sumptuous and came with our discounted ticket.
We arrived to a warm welcome by Paramveer Singh of Wonderland. Our beloved Ms Pooja Arora had arranged him for us.
Two scenes stand out to me :
Scene 1 : Luv entering the building of the disco after snacks and being reprimanded by a fat bouncer to not enter. Paramveer was approached and said of course you will go to the disco. We trooped up to the third floor disco. There were a dozen of us. Manish and Varun like to dance. And gyrated to the Punjabi numbers. Others stood around admiring the appealing interior. Most or all of our clients had never been inside a disco. Luv touched the walls. Ronit stared up with his toothy smile at the glass wall separating us from the DJ. The driver made videos. The DJ changed numbers to get us all dancing.
Kiran is wheelchair supported. She waved her arms with the music, then asked to alight. We helped her down to the floor. To our stuperfied delight, she danced sitting, The DJ played two numbers I think. Kiran’s arms undulated, she occasionally shuffled forward on her bottom. Her head moved up and down, teeth bare. Manish and Varun stopped, then rejoined. Kiran’s father smiled in glee. Priceless sight !
Scene 2: Luv does not hang out with the rest of the group on the ground of late. He has the privilege of traveling a lot personally for the past couple of years and is quite confident on outings, wandering alone, exploring. He had entered the vast eating area in Wonderland before us all ,and made himself comfortable on a table away from ours. I walked up to him to see a waiter by him and two small plates of snacks on his table. A half eaten fried vegetable dish. And Luv was midway into digging a plate of pasta. He had not been eating more than dinner at night for months, declining his tiffin in APAAR’s sheltered workshop. Here he loved the variety of snacks and the privilege of being served with such attention I am sure. Later he was served beetroot uttapam in tikki form and he ate a piece of that. Lime soda nimboo paani followed.
We are grateful to philanthropist Mr Sunil Malhotra for giving such joy to the marginalised.
We had three spare tickets and had invited the local Pingalwara residents to join but they could not make it.
APAAR marked 12 years of services to PIDD ( Persons With Intellectual and Developmental Disabilites) on 25 March, 2026.