Page 31 - Balvihar january 2024

See with

Feeling!

Saurabh screamed from his room, "Amma, I can't find my
Biology record book. I had left it here on the tea table and
now I can't find it.” Just in two minutes, Appa yelled,
"Where is the remote? You people use it and leave
it in such inaccessible places!” Grandpa walked in
and found the remote right next to the TV and the
record on the tea table. He wondered how these
people could not see the obvious!! Don’t we all turn
blind in the course of our busy lives of rushing in
and out of home?
Janaki was at the gate knocking the latch. Sneha
was busy getting ready with her favorite pen and
writing pad. Her friend who always accompanied
her in the morning to college was at the door and
yelling out for her to make it fast. Today they were on
a special assignment. They had both volunteered to scribe for people who cannot write.
Chandru was curious. He was in class 5 and wondered how there could be someone in the world
who could not write. He thought going to school and learning to write was part of growing up
and everyone who was at least 10 years of age must know how to write. He posed his question
to his favorite Rakhi teacher.

Rakhi teacher had to think a little before she explained the need
for a scribe! Should she talk only about those who are medically
visually impaired or also about those who choose to be impaired
in their outlook and refuse to see things that are clearly visible!!

Rakhi teacher took a deep breath and asked the children to close
their eyes for one minute. She asked for their experiences and how
it would feel to remain so for a long time, for a whole day, a whole
month, a whole year, a whole life. Children had different answers.
Rakhi Ma'am explained to the children that there are children
who may be born with eyes but without vision. Medical science has
progressed a great deal and enables recovery of vision in certain
cases while some people are still unable to have complete vision
through the eyes. Louis Braille

She related a small story. A French educator named Louis Braille had turned blind at the age
of 3 because of an accident. He was born on the 4th of January 1809. He invented this tactile
reading system in 1824 which could be specifically used by the visually impaired. It consists of

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Balvihar - January 2024