First Blind School Visit - by Sabrish Munendaran

“To be blind is not miserable; not to be able to bear blindness, that is miserable. - John Milton”

When I visited the blind school along with 40 odd children from The Sri Ram School, I had a plethora of thoughts going in my mind as to what to expect from this visit. This was my first active program as part of my Social Innovative Program and it was an inspirational experience.  Despite being at a disadvantage of knowing what they were deprived of, there were smiles, happiness and hope in each and every visually challenged student who was present. Be it the weaving of chairs using wires, playing harmonium and tabla to produce some pleasant music to the ears or the computer lab where I discovered a new innovative way to operate a computer, each and every moment I spent there was inspirational. While I was caught in the moment, I also looked at the faces of students from The Sri Ram school, curiosity filled expressions was seen across the room. I was sure that for many of us it was the first time we were experiencing something extraordinary like this.  We also managed to have a look at how Braille writing was done and I was surprised with the supreme level of precision the visually challenged people showed while making Braille content.

What lesson am I going to take from this visit? The lesson called Hope. There’s dialogue from a very famous movie called The Shawshank Redemption that goes like this “ Hope is a good thing, it is one of the best of things and no good thing ever dies” . What I saw there in the 3 hours I spent was Hope in action. We may be deprived of many things in life but there is always a reason for us to hope. And we should respect and acknowledge the things we have in a positive way and live our life to the fullest.



Thats the group before they left for the visit - L-R - Sahil, Rosemary and Sabrish