School sets its sights on the vision thing

MUMBAI, JUNE 13: Shyam Sayenekar is blind, but he didn't need sight to make his way down the corridors of his alma mater. His fingers too...

MUMBAI, JUNE 13: Shyam Sayenekar is blind, but he didn8217;t need sight to make his way down the corridors of his alma mater. His fingers took him down a familiar path of happy memories and a grooming which gave him the ability to make his way into the world that can see. Thus, when Sayenekar returned to the Kamla Mehta Dadar School for the Blind after 30 years ago, it was just like homecoming.

The Dadar school is celebrating its centenary celebrations this year, and part of the festivity was a reunion organised for past students. Set up by the American Marathi Mission at the turn of the century to serve children blinded by the Solapur famine, the school has grown from one room at Byculla to an impressive Gothic structure. it is now equipped with science and language laboratories, a gymnasium, a Braille library, a Home Science unit, a museum, a hobby centre and cultural classes. Twenty-two teachers help the students learn how to find their way in a sighted world.

Around 170 students 8211; from pre-school tostandard VII students 8211; live as well as learn at the school. From the eight grade, the students join up normal schooling, while continuing to live at Dadar.

Sayanekar, armed with a BA, LLB, LLM, MPhil and two gold medals from the University of Mumbai, is now the Head of the Pendharkar College8217;s history department. But at the reunion, memories of the mischief, love and learning that ruled his journey through the school loomed large.

8220;This is the museum,8221; Bharati tai, who has been teaching there for 11 years, informs him as they enter a large room lined with glass cabinets. Each houses models of animals, forests, railroads, dolls and objects the students learn about through touch. Sayanekar ruffles the feathers of a rubber duck happily. 8220;There are many new models to learn from in our school museum, though the old ones are worn out,8221; he says. 8220;The leopard is not robust any more. In our times, it used to be extremely ferocious,8221;he recalls, slapping the mock-cat8217;s back affectionately.

Shanta Narsian,from the 8217;68 batch recalls, 8220;The school was not as well equipped then as it is now. We didn8217;t have many Braille books whereas the library has almost 6,000 today. But we got a lot of affection and the atmosphere was wonderful. My principal would introduce me as the brightest and the naughtiest girl in school.8221;

Bharti tai says visual impairment gives birth to some novel tricks. A favourite with the 6-8 year-olds, she says, involves the different pulses they are supposed to sort out by size and texture. To test if Bharti tai is ignoring them, a student will deliberately sort incorrectly while tai is speaking to a neighbour. So tai has to constantly comment on each student8217;s progress. 8220;They cannot see that my eyes are watching everyone and find it difficult to understand how I can see them when I am too far to touch them. When they become too naughty, I have to punish them 8211; otherwise they would soon take over the school with their mischief.8221;

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Shyam recalls the time he was appointed a member of thePrarthna prayer committee. The members would lead the prayer in the assembly hall. The entire committee decided to scream in the middle of the prayer to shock everybody. And they did. The principal, far from being amused, commanded each offender to write out the prayer 25 times in Braille. 8220;Each of us gave up our 25 sheets without a whimper,8221; recalls Shyam. 8220;What our principal did not know then was that five copies could be embossed at a time in Braille!8221;Shyam and Shanta are among the few who have come back to the school financially independent and with a home. Others have not been so fortunate. Says Principal Smita Khanapurkar 8220;For every 50 that are succesful, there are at least 50 others struggling to cope with the world outside.8221; Many students are unemployed, and several have no one to care for them in the villages they come from. To make life a little easier for them, the school, which has been reserved for girls since the sixties, is trying to raise funds to build a hostel for blind workingwomen, college students and single women from low socio-economic groups.