Journalism of Courage
Some things are plain about Madhuri Dhodapkar she is straight forward,loves her job and is not pretentious. A teacher at The Poona School and Home for Blind Boys,Koregaon Park,for 32 years,Dhodapkar has set her heart on doing what she can so that the visually challenged students in her charge have a fair chance to do well in life. Her time,energy and comforts are all laid on the altar of that one desire. So when she painstakingly writes essays and debates in Braille for students participating in competitions or skips lunch with colleagues to rehearse with students,it’s not extraordinary.
But even these efforts did not satisfy Dhodapkar with all the desired result. No matter how much I and the other teachers help them in school,we can’t match up to what the parents can do for them. But most were of little help because they didn’t know Braille, she says. Dhodapkar and her colleagues then began thinking about what they could do to help the situation. We decided it will be a good idea to conduct free classes for parents to learn how to read and write Braille and took the proposal to our principal,who was very supportive, shares Dhodapkar.
She was allotted a free period between 4pm and 5pm for the classes,which are also open for anyone desiring to learn Braille. No endeavour can be successful unless there is a team of people supporting it. I have been fortunate to have colleagues and principals like Mangla Desai,Kamal Dighe and Chandrakant Bhosale,who have been very helpful and because of it I have been able to take these classes since 2009, she says.
Dhodapkar,who did not know Braille when she had first joined the school,says she knows how important it is to learn the language. The first batch of blind students I taught were in Class IV. They taught me how to read and write in Braille. They used to love the role reversal and would seek me out even if I forgot about my ‘class’, she says with a hearty laugh at the memory.
Dhodapkar herself has to do much the same with some of the parents. Very few parents are self motivated at the beginning. They are concerned about the child’s performance in school but not to the point that they would learn Braille themselves. We have to compel them to attend the classes for the child’s sake. At times I also have to talk to them sternly if they don’t come on time. I tell them to reach the place before time and be ready with the instruments so that we lose no time, says Dhodapkar,who has earned the reputation of being a disciplinarian. She adds that the classes are after all not for her advantage in anyway. I have to sometimes explain to the parents that it does not earn me any perks at work and that it is entirely for their children’s lives, she says.
When a new batch of parents come,she starts with teaching them how to put paper in the writing slate and how to hold a stylus (used to punch the Braille dots). Then she teaches them Marathi letters,moving on to English alphabets,sentences,paragraphs and more. The most challenging task for her has been to teach parents who are uneducated. They don’t know even regular reading and writing so I have to start from scratch before I can teach them anything in Braille, she says.
But Dhodapkar is categorical that this is what she wants to do. Salary toh har jagah milti hai. (Any job would give me a salary) But here I enjoy satisfaction, she says.
