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27 January 2010

Blind man victorious

KATHMANDU, Jan 27: Losing eyesight to typhoid at the tender age of three didn´t deter Kumar Thapa, 46, from pursuing a course of life that is termed ´normal´. It was a difficult course for him. Yet, he conquered it and is enjoying its rewards to the fullest.

Now a lecturer of Nepali at Mahendra Ratna Campus in Tahachal, Thapa, who was born on January 2, 1964, is a happily married man with two children. He owns a house at Nasal Tole, Lubhu-6, which he purchased back in 2003 parting with Rs 600,000 from his personal savings. He loves playing Braille cards and Braille chess. He enjoys Tito Satya, Hari Bahadur Madan Bahadur-2 and Meri Bassai, which he insists he "watches" and not just listens to.

"I have conquered the gap between me and people with eyesight," said the lively lecturer with a broad grin of contentment on his face. "It might sound funny but I think I was lucky to lose my eyesight. Had I not, I would not have received formal education," he said on Monday in his modest one-storied residence that sits in the middle of his 1.5-ropani plot of land.

There are ample reasons for Thapa to feel lucky. He comes from a poor farming family in Lubhu that couldn´t afford higher education for five children. To add to the family´s woes, Thapa´s father passed away when he was just five. The farthest that Thapa´s elder brother, younger brother and two sisters managed to reach was till the tenth grade. None made it through SLC.

But Thapa received free education at the Laboratory School under a government project to educate the visually impaired. He did his I Ed from Mahendra Ratna Campus, B Ed from Tribhuvan University and M.A in Nepali, also from Tribhuvan University, all under scholarships.

"So, education-wise, I was luckier than my siblings. I had an advantage: I couldn´t see," he said.
Thapa does not have any memories of sight. He first realized that he lacked eyesight when he was seven years old.

"I heard people talk about colors of objects. I heard them talk of things they could see from a distance," said Thapa.

The loss of eyesight left Thapa unable to grasp the meaning of colors. "If people ask me what color rose is, I tell them it is red. But I don´t know what red means," he said.

Thapa does not regret this though. He has built his life over other senses, rendering the power of sight redundant. "Sight is just a perception. It is not a complete perception in itself, though without it our perception is not complete," he philosophized.

Thapa makes up for his lack of eyesight with his ears and sense of touch, both of which are very sharp. Married to Januka Prasain, who was born without eyesight, he has strictly adhered to rules at home that make daily chores manageable.

"In my house, everyone informs the rest of the family members if anything has been moved from its usual location," explained Thapa. "Unlike you people, we have difficulty tracking things if they are moved without our knowledge. But with that taken care of, sense of touch and direction enables me and my wife to run the house quite normally," he said.

With a Braille watch tied around his wrist, Thapa also keeps good track of time, as he has students waiting for him at college. Ask him what time it is and he promptly lifts the glass cover of the watch, feels the hour and minute hands, and replies, like he did to us on Monday, "Half-past-one!"

Higher studies by accident Thapa, who scored first division marks from SLC through MA, says his educational journey was purely an accident.

"Until SLC, education was easily manageable as textbooks in Braille script were available. But thereafter, exams were painful for me in lack of such textbooks. For a month before every exam, classmates went in hibernation revising, while I was always looking for someone who could read the textbooks out to me," said Thapa somberly.

After completing I Ed in first division, Thapa looked for a job, deciding to call it quits with education. But his lack of eyesight wouldn´t land him one. "So there was nothing to do but continue studies," he said. The same thing happened after B Ed. By the time he found employment, he was already a Master of Arts. Thapa firmly believes that life has been rewarding so far, despite challenges. Of the challenges of daily living, he said with his die-hard pragmatism, "Challenges have to be dealt with. No use sulking over them!"

Thapa is not heavy with complaints of discrimination, though there have been "close" experiences.

"At school, there were friends who enjoyed patting at me and running away. There were others who hid my belongings. But they were harmless pranks," he said.

The most painful experience for Thapa though was when he was denied jobs because of his inability to see.

"There were times when I was sent back by prospective employers, who invariably told me that there were no vacancies. Just days after rejecting me, they would hire people who weren´t as academically successful as me," he reminisced.

Thapa, who relies on well-wishers, who read out teaching materials to him at home, to revise texts to conduct classes, began his teaching career in 1995. Today, he draws Rs 16,000 a month from his profession. This and Rs 15,000 that his wife draws teaching at Lubhu Secondary School, is enough to run the family and educate his daughter Kusum, a sixth grader, and son Mathbarsingh, a Lower Kindergarten student.

The two kids, who were painstakingly raised since the day of their birth by Thapa and his wife, have perfect eyesight.

The kids are his greatest rewards. They are his victory over darkness.

bikash@myrepublica.com

Published on 2010-01-27 01:00:05

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