A typical January morning; the first working day in the new year and an enthusiasm and feeling of gratitude on the occasion of Braille day. I was looking forward to the day with some amount of ambiguity. I did not know how the day would unfold. I was missing my usual visit to the statue of Louis Braille the great at NAB and thought that somehow I must reach there to pay my tributes. After all, I would not be writing this had it not been for him.
As it happened, the day turned out to be very interesting and enthralling.
In fact, the day was marked by the inauguration of Free Legal Aid Cell for the blind at NAB by Ms. Neelima Kanetkar, Legal Expert and our Area Director Mr. Shrinivas Sawant also addressed the gathering. This function provided me with an occasion to visit NAB and pay my tributes to the great man.
The function turned out to be special for me as ever since my NAB days, it was a dream to have a special legal cell for the blind; and Sightsavers brought it to reality. Thank you Sightsavers.
Another event that made the day was the launching of Braille weekly in Marathi. It was always my wish that Braille script should be got rid of the monopoly of the specialists. Now that translation from Devnagri script (Indian script) to Braille was made possible, this was achieved.
The icing on the cake was the 10 minute interview at Doordarshan—a local TV channel. The interview provided a great opportunity to expose activities of Sightsavers and talk at length about technological advancements. The life is so different with technology. Of course, the more I use technology, the more convinced I am that Braille is the most important thing that ever happened to the blind community.
May the memory of Louis Braille live long and enlighten us more and more.
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