Now, visually challenged can also feel Ramayana

BANGALORE: The visually challenged will now get a peek into the Ramayana, thanks to a 17-year-old student who has made the epic available in Braille.

Pranav Raghav Sood, a grade XI student of National Public School, Indiranagar, chose the great epic as it was not available to the visually challenged.

“I had visited the ‘Abilities’ school for blind when I was 12. I had accompanied my grandmother, who used to read out stuff to visually challenged kids. When we first went to the NGO, a visually challenged woman actually announced my grandmother’s arrival even before she stepped into the room. She had apparently figured out things by hearing her footsteps. I realized that day that the visually challenged had a different understanding of the world and with a little help they could actually do wonders in everyday live,” Pranav said.

After having received encouragement from his family, this young boy took 120 days to type out C Rajagopalachari’s Ramayana in English in MS Word format. Any text in this format can be directly programmed into Braille and this does not require any further editing.

Kalyan Nagar-based Abilities, which assisted Pranav, said: “The Ramayana is the most popular work and each one of us have to know about this great epic. We are so happy that this work will be now available to the visually challenged.”

Pranav’s mother, Anju Sood, said: “My son wanted to help the visually challenged children in writing exams. But as it did not work, he took up the project of making the Ramayana available to them in Braille. I hope his efforts will be emulated by other children.”

Responses