Saturday, March 21, 2009

Anuual Function




On 21st March 2009, when the sun on the equator illumining the whole earth equally and marking the beginning of new cycle of seasons with arrival of spring Atma Jyoti Residential School for visually challenged girls celebrated its Annual Function.
The lawns of the school were filled with the guests who came to witness a lively show put up by the special girls of Atma Jyoti. The girls sang welcome song and then other songs, whirled to the rhythm of popular film songs and even performed a funny skit with all the expressions and movements around the stage.
The program was put up with such fervor that the spectators had to remind themselves that they were watching visually challenged girls dancing so flawlessly and coordinating their steps with other dance partners. The girls even performed a devotional dance with burning lamps in their hands without any troubles. The songs they sang were melodious and full of good messages like “we promise by the morn of friendship to finish the enmity in the world, if you walk with us!”
The program was successful in showcasing the talents in these special girls. They really put up a professional show, it will be a challenge to find choir who can match their notes or a dance-troupe who can match steps with these special girls!
“we can see blooming flowers only in spring, but they carry the spring itself with them where they go!”
Little Angels High School students and teachers have been helping the visually challenged girls organize their Annual Functions from past few years.
We learnt: 1. Our visually challenged friends are wonderful performers.
2. They are disciplined and work together very well.

Friday, March 20, 2009

Joy of Helping

“… ye may each become a lighted candle in the world of humanity, may be devoted to the service of all mankind, may give up your rest and comfort, so that ye may become the cause of the tranquillity of the world of creation.”
- Abdu'l-Baha



I visited “Atma Jyoti – a home for the blind girls” few times and recently I got a chance to help my friends there to write exams. From the first time I went there, we (the visually challenged girls and my friends from Little Angels High School) became very good friends. Our teachers motivated us a lot to do some good for others and when the visually challenged girls needed help to write exams, I immediately volunteered to do it.
I got chance to write Social Studies exam. I write that exam for my friend Pooja. She is a very polite girl and very friendly at same time she is eager to learn and very intelligent. She was prepared very well for the exam and as soon as I would read the question, she would narrate the answer completely and repeat every time I needed. I am sure that she’ll get very good marks and I will be as happy as her in her success.

-Roma Kukreja

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Writing Exams...



Our friends from “Atma Jyoti” study in regular school near their hostel (St. Paul School, Gwalior) and their school does not allow to give exams in Braille, they need a writer, who assists them by first reading aloud the questions and then writing the answers as they tell them.
We put everything else on hold and got in action to get writers for our friends. We appealed our classmates to volunteer to write the exams for visually challenged girls and we were overwhelmed by the response we got. We got more volunteers than we needed. Our school management helped us by arranging to take the writers to the exam center and then bring them back home in school van.
When our students went to write exams, they were surprised to how these visually challenged girls were doing things independently and knew answers to most of the questions in the exam. The students who performed this service are very happy and all of them say that they realized that the visually challenged people have no sight, but they definitely have a vision and they also have special talents, which need to be realized, so that they themselves and society may benefit from it.

Outcome: 1. The visually challenged girls could finish their exam without any trouble and got very good grades.
2. We got chance to do some good work.

What we learned:
1. There is lot of goodness in everyone, we just need to appeal to the good in person and we can see the goodness translate into constructive act of service.
2. Our visually challenged friends were well prepared to give their exams, this showed their eagerness to learn and become independent member of society, who can contribute positively to society.

3. We can do wonderful things together with good intention and proper planning.