Bend, who has been left alone to his devices in the city
that would facilitate him some reading time and space, is suggested by his
better half to check out the Blind Men’s Association (BMA). He is convinced that
he is good with elocution, and blind students might enjoy some way ward story
books or classics read to them. Bend can picture random changing expressions on
the disabled blind faces, and seeking entertainment makes it a point to visit the
institution. Seems, he has found a way through to read, and to be heard.
BMA is a well known not-profit in the city of Ahmedabad. In
addition to Blind men of all abilities, the institution also facilitates other
disabled individuals with counselling, training and employment. BMA has a long history
of successful establishment, and has a strong charity and volunteer base as
well. Bend, on enquiries is directed to Mr. Luhar, a proactive blind man
himself, who then asks Bend to help prepare seventh grade adult students for their
exams next week. Thereafter, the summer vacations would come, and as the newer fresh
term starts, Bend can facilitate general interaction to English studying students,
so that they can get more comfortable with the language.
This exams pressure is like a designed evil who grips almost
a billion people of India just before the summers. One needs to perform well
enough to get out of its clutches. Summers, thereafter is a fanning time to
cool down and move on to the next level. The charm of springs is under defeat
by the devil. BMA and its blind students also have to take their share of this.
Bend takes about three four classes and the blind receivers are more than happy
to re-run their modal verbs, question making and similar stuff of structured
grammar. Anyhow, Bend is not to break easily and takes out time towards the end
of the wayward classes. Bend steals some last minutes of the devil’s aura of exams
to test read a random paragraph from Samuel Mark Twain’s ‘Adventures of Tom
Sawyer’.
When the Sunday-school
hour was finished, the next morning, the bell began to toll, instead of ringing
in the usual way. It was a very still Sabbath, and the mournful sound seemed in
keeping with the musing hush that lay upon the nature. The villagers began to
gather, loitering a moment in the vestibule to converse in whispers about the
sad event. But there was no whispering in the house; only the funereal rustling
of dresses as the women gathered to their seats, disturbed the silence there.
None could remember when the little church had been so full before. There was
finally a waiting pause, an expectant dumbness, and then Aunt Polly entered,
followed by Sid and Mary, and then by the Harper family, all in deep black, and
the whole congregation, the old minister as well, rose reverently and stood,
until the mourners were seated in the front pew. There was another communing
silence, broken at intervals by muffled sobs, and then the minister spread his
hands abroad and prayed. A moving hymn was sung, and the text followed: “I am
the Resurrection and the Life.”
The blind students did not understand the paragraph, perhaps
not even a line fully, for it became slightly difficult for them to express
when Bend asks them of opinions. They could not remember the names perhaps because they
were Anglican. Expression is what they are not taught, actually a common misery
with the education system in India, giving an impression that the students are shy
kinds. But, on persuasion, almost all finally utter words they could
grasp, since they have heard these words before and perhaps also understand their
meaning. The words (name of the student next) are:
Church :. (Vaaradhaana)
Life :. (Taleb)
Pray :. (Chandrakant)
Sunday:. (Bawal)
Minister:. (Mansook)
Family:. (Mansukh)
One can join the above words to probably get a sense of what
is happening in a typical story book.
Lesson- ‘together we sense better’.
