nice info. for sometime, I felt i am in my school amidst my vi friends enjoying divali. keep posting, thanks.
On 10/21/14, avinash shahi <[email protected]> wrote: > Wonderful, such stories have immense potential to ignite unaware minds > who hold pre-conceived notion about blind people' duable capabilities. > Kudos to The Hindu for doing a story on Diwali from (BRA...) > http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-newdelhi/diwali-brings-cheer-and-light-into-their-dark-world/article6521331.ece > > "The first thing is stop calling them 'they'," says K. C. Pandey, > management head of the Blind Relief Association (BRA), while referring > to the visually-impaired people. > > He is right. The visually-impaired enjoy Diwali as much as any one > with two pairs of eyes do, and especially if they are among friends in > a hostel, as parents often get overprotective about them while they > light firecrackers on their own. > > There are three kinds of visually-impaired people, and for each > category Diwali holds a different meaning. For those blind by birth, > the festival of light is just a medley of sounds. For the partially > blind it's a blurred of vision of sparkling lights and some can even > peer at the brands and check the ones they like. For those, who are on > the verge of loosing sight it's the time to pack in memories of lights > and colours. At the hostel here they have an edge over the other two > categories, who often "seek help" from them to identify the > firecrackers and the 'danger' they pose. > > At BRA, the residential senior secondary school, students of all ages, > however, are having a gala time this season. The fun includes bursting > firecrackers and decorating diyas in the hostel. For most of the > students' rocket bomb, sutli bomb, 'bullet' bomb, anar bomb and > woollen bomb are outright favourites. > > "I love rocket bomb. 'Voh mast phootta hai'. I crack them after > placing them in a bottle." says Pawan Kumar. > > "Once we had put all our rockets in an almirah and somehow they caught > fire. Since the rockets didn't find space to go up, they went > spiralling down. Later, we saw numerous holes in the bottom of the > almirah," recalled Mahtab, a student of Class XI, as everyone around > laughed aloud. Imran, another student, said: "There is no count of > naughty stuff we do during Diwali. We fire crackers inside spare > desks. I love to fire crackers inside a mouse trap, hold it and run > with it." > > A Class XII student Daman Preet Singh chipped in: "Though we can't see > the firecrackers but burning them is fun. Our parents/guardians tell > us the colours and sizes and make us touch them to feel their shape. > So, we all practically know what they look like. I even know and have > touched the ash of the 'snake' tablet. To be on the safe side, though, > some of us fire the crackers by wrapping them in papers." > > Gaurav Mishra, who is partially visually impaired, lights the crackers > by hand. "I am perceptive to light. When I can see it flickering > hazily I leave the cracker to burst. When we light the bomb, its mild > 'surrr' sound alerts us to run away." > > Another student Deshraj, who is slowly losing sight, said earlier he > loved to take risk with fire crackers and is particularly fond of > anars. "I can hazily see a shadow of the anar flashing as it flowers > up." > > Students unanimously agree that they love to celebrate Diwali with > their friends rather than at home. "Parents are too protective at > home. We have less fun there", many of them said in unison. > > For some children in the primary section here, Diwali is also an > occasion for "eating unlimited amount of sweets". > > "I eat rasgullahs and balooshahi endlessly and love lighting up the > bullet and sutli bombs," said Aditya from Haryana, a Class V student. > > His views were echoed by Tushar, his class mate who loves to fire > crackers "from the gun for safety reasons." Nihal, who is slowly > losing vision, said he loved Diwali more when his sight was better. > But, he insisted that with friends around, he was slowly coming to > accept his disability. "This year, I will also enjoy the way I used > to," he declared. > > The visually-impaired also often commit dangerous mistakes while > lighting firecrackers. Some of the boys narrated how they took a slow > burning bomb to be a defused one and had to run when it exploded. Some > narrated how they threw a burning firecracker towards a friend by > mistake and how often the sutli bombs simply burst under their feet. > > Damanpreet concluded by asking: "Even sighted people face this scenario, > > > -- > Avinash Shahi > Doctoral student at Centre for Law and Governance JNU > > Clean India Campaign: Let us also chip in! > > > > 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.. > Clean India Campaign: Let us also chip in! 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..
