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| Reshma, Vadakketharaveli, Cheruvaranam, Kanjikuzhy, Alappuzha |
The accepted method of enabling the blind to appear for exams is to allow scribes. But when 10th standard student Reshma insisted that she would write the SSLC exams in Braille instead of using a scribe, everyone initially opposed it. But to the winner of Braille reading and writing in special school festival at State level for many years, there was no lack of confidence about writing her answers dot by dot.
In the end her determination won as parents, teachers and the exam authorities came around to accept her proposal. And so she took the SSLC exams, puncturing the thick paper from left to right, so that when turned over, the pages would present Braille words from left to right. She was the first candidate in 44 years to do so.
Daughter of a toddy tapper from Kanjikkuzhy in Alappuzha district, Resma suffered blindness as a slow snuffing out of the light from her eyes in childhood. It were the years at Assissi Blind School, Kanjirappally that taught her the tactile script of Braille.
From the 8th standard onwards, every year she had been appealing to the authorities to provide her Braille textbooks, but in vain. It was only after model exams for SSLC that she could somehow manage them. And yet in the exams, she could carve out, almost bit by bit, a creditable win with 80% marks.
Courtesy:
Lazar Shine, Sree, Malayala Manorama, June 11, 2006
Contributed by: Administrator
