Light

What must it be like to live in a world of complete darkness or where the only light you can see is a vague haze...like walking in a dense fog with only ghostly shapes and almost bodiless voices all around you? This is what I thought about when I initially looked at the audience, which consisted of mostly completely blind and a few partially sighted people?

My class recently hosted a full-day programme for the inmates of the National Association for the Blind Workshop, Mumbai. As part of this programme there were several songs that we sang for them [I even gave a small recital in Raag Yaman :) ... I'm still very happy about the response I got! ]. In between the skits and songs that we had prepared for them, they also came up to the stage and absolutely amazed us with their repertoire of geets, ghazals, shers, jokes and comments.

Last night when I was thinking about this, what struck me most was the way in which they responded to music. If you had seen their faces when someone was singing or observed the extent of their sensitivity of the various aspects of any song, I can guarantee you that it would have been a humbling experience. They say that when one of the senses fails to operate, the other senses become sharper in order to compensate for its loss...nowhere is this more apparent than in the case of visual impairment. The hearing of these individuals was amazingly sophisticated...their praise (short comments like "wah", "kya bat hai", "aha") came exactly when the performer did something exceptionally good or when he/she faltered a little and needed some encouragement). They remembered the voice of each performer and congratulated him/her individually after the programme was over. They smiled more genuinely and laughed more freely at any joke that was recited.

In a way, these people were freer, more uninhibited and many of us sighted individuals. I've seen people who are afraid of smiling because they don't like their teeth, people who are scared of walking into a room full of strangers because they are not sure how they look...people who are scared to speak because they can see how others look at them. Not one of them knew what his/her face looked like...and frankly, I don't think any of them cared about it. They were the most open-hearted and enthusiastic group that I had ever had the privilege of being in touch with. I left that day, with a whole new perspective...

I'm so thankful for being able to see the wonders of nature, to know what the smiles of my family members look like and to have memories of all the people and places I've seen...and I'm equally thankful that I have music in my life, that I can hear laughter and feel someone's smile in his/her voice...