The idea of writing on this subject had crept into my mind before Ramki Sir and Hari Sir (sitting on the back-seat of the car) discussed as to how difficult (and dark) was that an incident to describe. So here, I put my efforts to describe the same…
International Institute for Social Entrepreneurs (IISE), Vellayani was the place we [I, Ramki Sir, Shyamla Ma’m (Ramki Sir’s wife) and Hari Sir] visited on the evening of October 15, 2009. The institute is situated right-next to the largest fresh-water lake in Kerala. We were welcomed by the young fleet there. Several activities were going on there. One camp was dedicated to ‘Blind Massage’ where one visually-challenged women and a sighted man were providing the service of neck and leg massaging.
One camp was totally dedicated to the awareness of Braille script, completely handled by visually-challenged people. A young lady skillfully showed us how she handled the laptop. That was a ‘Dell’ J (Batch-4 students know the secret behind this smiley) laptop and several ‘Braille’ stickers were stuck on the keys like ‘Tab’, ‘Enter’ etc. There were special buttons/lights on the right top corner of the laptop. The Operating System was ‘Ubuntu’ and an additional plug-in was downloaded to help with the voice explanations & description.
Another person was sitting with a Braille Typewriter. The Typewriter had 3 keys on each side with a spacebar in between. One Tab key (most probably) was on the left. I was wondering how everything of the English language is covered just by 6 keys! Another person was demonstrating the way to write in Braille script. He had a stylus, a net (one needed to force the stylus into the paper to make bloated dots), and a thick paper. I followed his instructions to write my name and ended up writing ‘JNUKIN’. Finally, I was able to write my complete name correctly.
Another interesting thing was the ‘Obstacles Course’. Actually this was the event which I liked most. Initially I was a bit afraid but then I thought to ‘explore’ it. So, I was blind-folded, was handed a white cane and had to slowly stumble a zigzagged way which included an artificial wooden bridge. Thanks to my reasoning abilities, I didn’t find it much difficult. In the middle of stage I was smelled clove and some other spices and was asked to name them. Now, in the second stage I was handed a bowl of water and I was supposed to go to and fro on an obstacles-loaded path with 3-4 ropes. Blindfolded, I had to decide just by touching the rope and obstacles by the white-cane, whether I had to climb over the rope or just bend and pass through the rope. 20 minutes, complete darkness and bingo, I attained the task.
Then followed a stage-show comprising of songs, experiences and play. The spirit of the visually-challenged people was awe-inspiring. Next came the much-awaited ‘Café in the dark’. Here we were supposed to have snacks in complete darkness. I had the feeling in my mind that there would be at least, at least again (its not a type-error) some light. Coupons were of different shapes so as to be touched and felt as to what they stand for. So, we four people were taken inside and to describe the darkness inside, I’d say it was something more than darkness. And I mean it; Its very low a probability that the reader of this blog had faced a situation of complete (more than complete; how do I express myself!) darkness for around 30 minutes. Generally eyes adjust to the darkness and one slowly starts seeing things whatsoever darkness one faces, but that was an exceptional situation.
We were welcomed by a visually-challenged lady. She made a train of us, of which Hari Sir was the engine and I was the guard’s coach; and there the train left chuk chuk chuk… We were made to listen various sounds in the dark and then taken to a table on which several fruits were kept. Sheer darkness, and we’re asked to touch and smell fruits and recognize them. Another table and there were spices instead of fruits. Then we were handed our ‘samosas’ in a plate and were guided to a table. We sat and the visually challenged lady who, in those circumstances was ‘more efficient’ than us, brought tea for us. After some time Ramki Sir asked, “Nikunj! Are you done with your tea?” I replied, “Sir, I don’t know how much I’m finished with my tea”. The Samosa and tea were indeed delicious by themselves; needless to say the unique atmosphere added its own flavor.
One serious take-away was the thought of comparing my live with theirs’. They can’t see what they eat. They have to stumble slowly. And, here I ‘m afraid of trivial issues.
