When you see a blind
person crossing a road what comes to your mind? Just a pity feeling ?
At best you may stop your vehicle, so that the person can cross the
road !
Rotary gave me an
opportunity to enter into a blind person's mind and get a “glimpse”
of daily routine and associated challenges.
Rotary Bangaore North West
participated in Rotary supported Blind walk’15 on Sunday 6th
Sept afternoon, in Cubbon park.
At the beginning, all the
participants were blind folded with a black ribbon. Then we were
lined up in a group of five (Five of North Westers made one such
link) touching each other’s shoulder forming a kind of chain. One
visually challenged person along with a volunteer was ready to lead
us.
The walk started from
Cubbon park main entrance at around 4:00 pm and culminated at St
Joseph Indian school ground after walking along busy Kasturiba Road
and Vittal Malya Road. One kilometer walk took almost an hour and
gave an amazing experience!!
When the event was flagged
off, walk started with a big jerk. First thing I noticed was loss of
sense of direction. Then natural fear in me kicked in. “Which road,
what kind of hurdles on the way, if I get delinked from the chain”,
etc., etc., etc. Eventhough there were volunteers cautioning us, we
were not knowing whom it was addressed to. When I heard a voice, “be
careful there is a step (!!!)”, everyone used to be overcautious,
searching for the step and bringing the whole walk to a halt. A small
pothole, a stone, some dirt, flowing water in the road -- all made
different sense for this walk.
Since we had already lost
sense of direction, a honk of passing vehicle brought in fear factor
and extra caution. We were not aware of which part of the road we
were treading in – right, left or at the centre. Unable to
distinguish, if the honk was for me or to someone else. Difficult to
judge distance of passing vehicles just by sheer sound.
After about 20-30 minutes,
sixth sense started kicking in slowly. Some amount of confidence
cropped up. On the other hand, visually challenged leader seems to be
unperturbed about all these surroundings. He was talking about
recently released movies, his favourite actors, etc. etc.
A kilometer walk made us
to experience quite a few challenges blind people face in their
daily life. Just feeling pity or doing a lip service will not serve.
We North Westers took a pledge to donate our eyes. That could be the
only way to address this issue. At the end of the evening, the walk
turned out to be a true gift to the humanity.
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