EDUCATING MYSELF

I am Radha I am 62 years old , I am not a working woman, but I always worked on something or the other and I have kept myself very busy, either it was helping someone or doing my own household work, always busy busy busy

This busy word is used very easily by young and old, in this IT age no one is free and no one has time for others and of course TIME IS MONEY

Ya, some way I am also busy like others but there is a difference

I am busy without earning a penny, I leave my home in the morning and reach back in the evening, whoever sees me going out on my scooter thinks I am a working woman, some employee somewhere, no I am NOT, but I go out regularly…

To do some pending bank work, paying the bills of my older sister who is 80 years and cannot go out by herself, or to take her to the doctor, some days I sit with a friend who is ailing with cancer, I also have to look after the construction of our ancestral building and manage the workers and their needs…

Weekly I also go to recite community prayers with my prayer group, another day of the week I also volunteer at the Medical Room helping the colony doctor,

This way all my week days are totally booked, Oh I also have to practice my music,

I joined a vocal music class at this age of 60 plus, some decision!!

That is why I have no time to spare.

Still, I thought, why not? When Mrs Sastry asked me to help read for someone ….someone special :

"Blind Students".

I married very young. I had just finished my high school.

Though I have always been fond of education and dreamt of having BIG BIG degrees and doing research work and other important stuff .

Here I am married to a person who was always getting transferred to remote places….where I could not do anything that I wanted, could not work to prove my ability…those days there was no distance education available and my desire to study remained unfulfilled.

There was no help or encouragement from my husband whatsoever, that was the culture those days. So alas! there seemed NO ray of hope for me in the near future. I remained a sort of a BLIND PERSON , though a blind person with eyes to see.

In my opinion, No Education = Blindness

So when my friend approached me about her Trust for the Blind , Samrita Trust, I immediately got associated with them four years ago.When they started this trust, I was not very sure how this would work but I became the member of the trust and it has now become a part of my life.

In India there are many Blind people, especially from the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, these Blind people are very young and come from poor background, but they have enthusiasm to study, their underprivileged condition prevents them from joining good schools…if they have to write an exam, they need the help of a person who can read the questions for them.

The government has provided separate schools , also they have reservations in private schools but this is not enough…they need much more than that…when blind students want to study any subject to appear in an exam they need someone else’s help to read out the lessons for them but when the volunteers are busy and unable to give time to the blind it becomes a frustrating situation to that motivated blind person.

This is where the Trust takes over and I come in.

I am a Reader. I read lessons from undergraduate textbooks into a PC and make an audio CD , these CDs along with the CD players are then distributed among the blind students.

There have been some days where I read the textbooks late at nite sometimes after midnight so that the CDs are made on time….despite my very hectic life I make sure that this takes priority ….

This gives me a lot of fulfillment and I finally feel that my abilities are being utilized and I am also useful to someone….especially when I get a call of thanks from my students after they clear their exams….my heart breaks into a song!