Oh my Louis!!

HYDERABAD: When vision dies, the sound of music comes alive. And so it was at the venue for the celebration of the 203rd birth anniversary of Louis Braille, the visionary founder of Braille script for the blind.Strains of Telugu notes emanated from the lips of the visually impaired in the crowd as Chief Guest of the day Sunitha Laxma Reddy V, Minister for Indira Kranthi Yojana and Pensions, delayed her arrival by more than an hour-and-a-half. The blind tapped their feet to the beautiful renditions sung by their compatriots, be it religious, filmy or even poetic lyrics dedicated to the great man Louis Braille himself, being marked with a smile that refused to leave.“It’s a day for us to rejoice. Thanks to the Braille script we can read and write and interact confidently with any person,” said a visibly jubilant Sharath Kumar, a degree student at a city college. For Sharath, lack of eyesight is not a problem at all. He loves reading and lists Shakespeare’s works among his favourites. “In academics, social is my favourite subject. Have you read Gandhiji’s ‘My Experiments With Truth’ or Nehru’s ‘Glimpses of World History’? Well, I have”, he quips with a 70mm smile. As for his friend Mohan sitting adjacent, music helps make up for the sights he misses. “Any songs of DSP or movies of Allu Arjun are a pleasure to the ear,” says the 20 year old BA Economics student.