That is what I read on the rickshaw driver’s seat… I didn’t really understand it when I read it at first cause it was in Marathi, so I asked the guy what it meant and he didn’t know Marathi!! I guess it was probably stuck over there by some social organization. But as I read it again, the little light in my head started glowing and I went Oh wow!!, so like that’s what it means!!
That’s really so true I must say, especially after my visit to the National Association for The Blind(NAB), at Worli. What was I doing there, you ask?? *A big fat grin on my face* I happened to have been chosen along with my friend, to initiate talks with the NAB for the newly built Edu-vision centre of my college, Nagindas Khandwala. (a.k.a N.L. College!!), Malad. Edu-Vision happens to be the only visually-challenged education centre in the suburbs, and among the only four in the whole city. So, our college has a brand new centre, all the infrastructure and computers but no skilled trainers. So they needed some more guidance from the people at NAB to really kickstart the whole thing and get it running smoothly.
So they select my friend, Devang Thakar who also happens to be my ex-classmate and colleague as the head of operations for Edu-Vision and moi as temporary team member until I leave my lecturer’s post ( its temporary cause my MCA studies timings clash big time! (not cause i am incompetent!!) ).
So we gotta go and get things rolling, and basically initiate communication as to what we need to finally start the centre…And off we go on a b-e-a-u-tiful rainy morning as official ambassadors of N.K. College!!(whew! that title seems so unecessary, but itza supa-cool!!). After a couple of wrong turns and ending up in the wrong places, we finally arrive at this place.
So, we go to the Head Office and ask to meet the director of the center for an audience with him, and the office staff treat us so courteously upon looking at our faces!(smiles work wonders I tell ya!). They tell us to wait a while cause its lunch time an all, so we go to the canteen.
Over there we see a completely blind lady have her food, and then after finishing, she gets up with the plate in hand, going towards the basin, I get up to escort her to the tap so that she can wash her hands and to my surprise she starts feeling for a scrubber and starts to wash her plate as well!! She first kept the leftovers aside so the basin doesn’t choke up!!(I fail to do that at home sometimes!!) and she did not find the scrubber so she proceeds to wash her plate by hand anyway and wipes her mouth, pats herself dry and goes to the counter to pay the bill!! And I look at the plate she left there and there was not a trace of even a small smudge!!!
When you look at such people, you kinda feel odd cause they can’t look back at you.. Im wondering if she felt insecure that somebody could be staring at her. Things that she knew could happen sometime and she wouldn’t know.
So, lunch over, its time ta meet tha boss!!
In we go to the director’s cabin, and I am greeted by a Mr. Raman Shankar, man who looked at us in such a way that we both had no clue whatsoever that he had partial vision! Only when we saw him dial a phone number by bringing it very close to his cheek to see the number it kinda dawned on us both!!
WOW!!! The man running the place had partial vision!! Its not a small organization I tell you! It prints study material for the whole of India! On audio tapes,Cd’s and the kewlest language, Braille!! *Ya know, its the most meaningful language that was ever made!! ya know why? cause you can really *feel* each word !!* hehehe
Jokes aside. Tha man runs a huge place, no questions!! He shocks us again when he tells us that his brother, Mr. Ram Krishna, is tha General Manager of IDBI Bank, not a branch manager, but the head honcho of like a whole area!! And that dewd finished his Masters in Management Studies in ’85.
Mr. Raman Shankar then offers to take us for a tour of the whole place, and begins to show us the recording studio where literature in text is converted to audio by people from different fields: RJ’s, various artistes and news readers, etc. 3 recording studios are simultaneously used to record and master audio tapes, and Cd’s for 18 hours everyday!! And we have tape-to-CD convertors and A CD mastering room,(Im oogling at the equpiment!!)
He takes us to the library and I was pleasantly surprised to find that it 1,50,000 tapes!! Now Thats A Library! Ok!! we now go to the next section quickly and Mr. Raman Shankar is totally going for it!! He is movin like a normal person, tackling the stairways faster than us, and we follow his lead with some effort!
We go to a Call-Center inside the place, with about 20 visually challenged people working together as a team to market a product!! They make out-going calls to sell phone connections!! Heavens!! I’m neva gonna talk rudely to any salesperson who calls me askin to buy a product!! I met a believa workin there, his name is Mr. Chandrakant, I’m believin GOD for a major breakthrough in his life!! The whole place would be changed!! Ok!!, a bell ringeth, their tea-time break is over so we move to the Computer section!!
Enter the comp lab!! Training is provided to students on how to use the computer using software that speaks out what is on the screen!! These students are like 6-25 years old and from all over India. We speak to a Mr. Dabholkar who is the trainer, himself fully visually-impaired due to an accident since i think 12 years. By this time I’m really falling in love with the courtesy and warmth that I received from Mr. Dabholkar and the other people whom we met. Felt like church in a way!!
And then we go to the cyber cafe(hmmph i m getting tired writin 4 so long), which is the last place we see that day.. We are greeted by Mr. Satej, 25-ish guy, partially blind and in-charge of the cyber-cafe! Wow! I imagine myself being an IT student an all, knowin a little bit how to handle a cyber cafe!! It’s not that easy!! But see GOD’s grace!! To the weak, whom GOD gives wisdom and strength, and makes them able, to do what the strong would find hard to do!!
And this takes the cake!! We meet two visually- impaired guys, both 25-ish,earlier in the morning at dadar station and we think they are going to same place, so we offer these guys to accompany us but they politely decline! And then we see these same two guys at the cybercafe at the NAB!! One guy’s name is Deepak and the other is Keval. And both are fully visually-impaired!!
And Keval has a typing speed of 45 words per min!! (mine is like 37 (checked just now!)) and he has to be deadly accurate!! And he surf’s the web like me!!! I asked him to show me his surfing skills and he asked me what I would like him to do!! And I said, “Google the term, ‘barbarian’”. So off he goes!! first he types the web address, but the page does not open, webpage not found error!! But he simply goes ahead and presses the F5 key, and voila! the homepage is there! right at this moment im realizing the amount of practice and concentration required to do this because he has no idea whatsoever what is displayed on the screen!! They work with this software which reads out whatever there is on the screen, even on websites. And that is how he worked.. So this dude enters the word and the search page opens, then he proceeds to make the software read out each detail of the items in the results and then finally decides that the first link is the one most suiting his requirement and he then goes to that page!!! No mouse mind you! All is via the keyboard!
I marvel at this feat until they offer to show me a video that they made.. And then I read the starting credits of the film and I see both their names, Mr. Keval– Producer, and Mr. Deepak, Director! of UDAAN ENTERTAINMENT GROUP!! Comprising of 40 artistes, mostly visually-impaired!! They have done about 90 shows in the last two years nationwide!!
And I ask him a bit shocked, how do you manage the marketing???? He replies,
- “Well we try to meet atleast one new person a day and tell him what we can offer. Initially it was quite hard to get any sponsors, because many people usually look at us and judge us before we speak. But then now we have a good network going on.. college principals and philanthrophists among others…The main aim is to provide a sustainable means of income and also prove to the world that we are no less than them.”
Those were his words… his diction, perfect. His speech: charming, polite, composed and confident. And I asked him some questions, “Do you all stay close by? -No. We are spread out all over mumbai. Where do you practice? – Ville parle. You must find it hard to come together for band practice since the mumbai trains are hectic..” He said, “We cant let such a thing deter us, we are aiming to go global soon…”
And then, (as if GOD threw a pebble upon my head) it struck me!, I realized… MY VISION LIMITS ME!!
Wow! I was really blessed that day to share some precious moments with such people..
So, then we exchanged our goodbyes and made our way to the director’s cabin to say our thanks to him. I could’nt help but just hug him!!! He was so so kind to us!! for the first time in my life I felt as if I was treated like a VIP! That man took out abt 45 min from his busy schedule to play host to two 22 year olds who came to ask for help and guidance!! And I came back home that day with much more than what I had left with…
I realize that though they’re impaired, that impairment makes them stronger and more determined. It’s only that what takes one step for us to complete, they have to do it in two… that’s about all the difference there is…
O ya an I finish with one last thing…
Their weakness is their greatest strength!! -Aankhen, the film
