You can walk past a million ailing, or disabled people in a day, and never spare a single second to think – Think about their lives. About the challenges they must face, and how they can even begin to work their way around them.
Or, you could sit in a class room, in a college, in the outskirts of Bengaluru, and think of ways to improve their lives, I your own little way.
Today I woke up in the morning, went to my kitchen, and made myself two eggs, and a toast. Then I walked to the bathroom, got ready, lit a cigarette, and left for college. Quite an ordinary morning, I'd say. But if you stop for a second, and wonder – how would a visually impaired person go through these everyday activities?
Space and Place A, wasn't just a course where we'd learn a bit about the blind, and maybe make a few presentations on ideas for products or projects that would help them. No, it was s course that actually looked to make a difference. We were first introduced to the concept, by being taught about Braille. We worked on visiting cards, using Braille, and then settled back in class.
Soon came the eternal question – Does a blind person want your help? Does he need your help? Or both?
Narendra smiled as he asked us this, knowing that none of us could possibly know the definite answer to this, as there probably is none. We were then divided into groups, and sent out to explore what provisions the city provided for the visually impaired; or what provisions it lacked, of course.
The group I was put in, was the transport group. We quickly divided the 8 of us into 4 and 4, deciding that one part would cover the bus stations, and the metro in the city; and the other group would cover autos, buses, and the airport. Naina, Himani, Natasha, and I were fortunate enough to be in the latter half, and our journey and our various discoveries have been documented in a short film which I shall attach later.
"This one time, 3 blind people rode in my auto together!" Says an ageing and seemingly experienced auto-vaala. I asked him how long it had been since they had travelled with him, and, leaving me in shock, he said "Tees saal pehle." ("Thirty years ago.")
Some experiences stay with you a lot longer than others. Most of the people we asked about the visually impaired, were quick to reply, and get over with it, so to speak. "Haan haan. Madad karenge agar zaroorat paregi toh. Unki toh sabh madad kartein hain." ("Yes yes, of course we'd help them if they needed us to. Anyone would help the blind.")
If someone had asked me about them a month back, I don't think I'd have a much different answer, sadly. But thankfully, through this project, we've managed to achieve something – work that makes me feel like I've made a change. Or that I can continue to make a change, no matter how small a change it may be.
Our next and final project, was to make Srishti's N3 campus, 'blind-friendly'.
After a few intense discussions, and many, many, critiquing sessions, we divided ourselves into groups, to complete maximum projects within a week. One group would go on to make an instruction manual for anyone helping a visually impaired person in the campus; my group, which was the product design group made many changes to the campus; and a 3rd group documented it all.
One can walk past anything, or anyone, and never care. One can feel the braille on an elevator button, and never stop to wonder why it's there. One can walk up a million ramps, and never stop to think why it's been put there. And one can walk up hundreds of flights of stairs, and never notice how many one has climbed.
But when you start to make these changes – that's when you realize what it means to have vision. Something we take for granted.
Yet the question still remains,
Do they want our help, or do they need our help?
I guess we'll never know..
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