Diminishing vision and disappearing space It was the same street, same row of buildings on either side. I was sure that the rickshaw puller would get a sadistic pleasure by swerving dangerously close to the startled pedestrian. And the pedestrian must weigh the danger of standing unperturbed by the veering three-wheeler or move away to confront the stray cow bounded in his direction.
Yes, it's not that easy to traverse the congested streets of south Indian cities, but people here are so used to the place that they make walking in these streets an art. Not so long ago, I was one of the practitioners of this art, trying to time my jump to stay away from the speeding vehicle or panicking stray animal. Well...as long as I could see. It's not just challenging, but suicidal if I try practicing that art as a blind man. After all, traffic related injuries and deaths are increasing each year in cities like Bangalore and Chennai and the mishaps almost always involve people with perfect vision. Forget about confronting chaos, but even a space with absolutely no movement or obstacle would be challenging for a person who had to undergo gradual vision loss. And herein lies the distinction between those who never had to use their vision before to perceive physical space around them and those who lose it over a period of time... Read the rest of the blog at: http://grapplingwithrp.wordpress.com Please press "like" on the blog page if you like it or share it on Facebook or Twitter. Also, please check out the previous postings. Please do forward it to friends/patients/doctors or anyone who you think will benefit from the posts. With warm regards, Subramani -- L. Subramani, Snr. Subeditor, Deccan Herald, Bangalore, M: 91-7204322451 Facebook: Subramani Lakshminarayanan Twitter: lsubramani60873 Linkedin: L. Subramani website: http://www.lsubramani.com If you are someone who need personal help to cope with blindness, a little friendly chat about things that bother you or just an ear to listen to your fears and frustrations, please don't hesitate to get in touch. I've been through that and I can help. Just leave your questions and if you don't want to give your name, that's fine. Are you an HR exec, a volunteer, a friend/relative of someone going through blindness or do you want to understand disability because it's part of something that you are working on?... Pl get in touch for volunteer help. Register at the dedicated AccessIndia list for discussing accessibility of mobile phones / Tabs on: http://mail.accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/mobile.accessindia_accessindia.org.in Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ To unsubscribe send a message to [email protected] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in Disclaimer: 1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity; 2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails sent through this mailing list..
