k.raghuraman's column - hai from raghuraman _2

HAI FROM RAGHURAMAN _ 2


True inspiration to all of us!

Please read this:

It happened in a sports stadium. Eight little girls were ready on thetrack to participate in the running event.

* Ready!
* Steady!!
* Bang!!!

As soon as the toy pistol fired, all eight girls startedrunning.

Hardly had they ran 10 to 15 steps, when one of the smaller girls slipped and fell down. She was bruised and started crying in pain.

When the other seven girls heard her, they all stopped running, stood for a moment and ran back to where the girl had fallen down and was crying.

One among them bent over, picked up the little girl and kissed her gently and enquired "Has the pain reduced now?" All the seven girls lifted this girl, pacified her, two of them held her firmly and they all joined hands together, walked together and reached the winning post.

The officials were shocked! The entire stadium resounded with the claps of the thousands of spectators.

And, do you know where this happened?

It happened in India!

YES. This happened in Hyderabad recently! The sports event had been organized by the National Institute of Mental Health. All these "special" girls had come to participate in this event and they were "spastic" children.

Yes, they were mentally challenged. But they taught a lesson to the world.

They taught us Teamwork! Humanity! Equality among all!

regards

raghu

"Not everything that is faced can be changed .

But nothing can be changed untill it is faced ."

K.RAGHURAMAN'S COLUMN - HAI FROM RAGHURAMAN _ 1

HAI FROM RAGHURAMAN! _ 1


Hai All,Below is the news about a low-vision student from Delhi scoring 96.7% in 12th commerce in CBSE. We are trying to interview him for our radio show.--------

New Delhi: Anuj Goel’s eyes hurt. But he kept pushing himself, trying to prove that he could do it. It wasn’t easy sitting in the front row for the visually impaired student — he strained his eyes to make out the letters on the blackboard, peering through his thick glasses.

Friday’s CBSE results showed all his pains were worth the effort: Goel not only stood first among 1,034 disabled students who took the examinations, he was also the topper among government school students.

His score: 96.7 per cent.

“I couldn’t see clearly even with my glasses on but I knew it couldn’t be corrected. I accepted it; I knew I had to live with it,” he says. “After a while,I stopped trying to change it. With the results, I have proved that a disability can’t stop you from making it to the top.”

The Commerce student was the only visually impaired student in Pratibha Vikas Vidalaya, the government’s showcase school that has often found mention in the top 100-list and is modeled on the Kendriya Vidyalayas.

He says though fellow students called him names in the beginning, he soon learned not to notice. Goel says he got support from all his teachers and friends — they often helped him with his work, encouraging him, sometimes even putting up a screen in front of him in multi-media classes so he could see.

When he was two, Goel’s mother Kusum Lata Goyal, an MCD school teacher, figured his eyesight was weak and the parents went to hospitals and private clinics, hoping for a cure. But when “no” was the answer everywhere, they decided to work with the odds.

“I put him in my school in Keshavpuram so I could be with him,” she says. “Then he took the entrance for Pratibha Vidyalaya in Shalimar Bagh after Class V and stood first — there has been no looking back after that.”

As Goel gorges on sweets brought over by neighbours and relatives, he is already planning his future. He wants to join SRCC: “It was always a dream to top in Delhi, to prove that I could do it, and I have done!

Source:http://www.indianexpress.com/news/96.7-city-boy-shows-vision-more-important-than-sight/464622/0

Adieu.

raghu.

"not everything that is faced can be changed .

but nothing can be changed until it is faced."

K.RAGHURAMAN'S COLUMN - POINTS TO PONDER _3

k.raghuraman's column

POINTS TO PONDER _ 2

Subject: best wishes to our P.M.

To: scretariat@ncpedp.com

Dear Sir,
I write to congratulate you on your stupendous success in theelections. I am thrilled and excited that the UPA government has comeinto power for the second term.
I wait in hope and anticipation that the positive initiatives that were begun in the last tenure will continue and touchthe lives of each one of the 70 million disabled people in India.
The demand for a separate ministry for disability has picked upmomentum across the country. This urgent need cannot be emphasizedenough.
I write to press this demand before you once again.The Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment is not able to fullyfocus on the issue of disability.
With issues of SC/ST, Minorities andthe other equally pressing issues demanding attention, the Minister is unable to find time for issues concerning disabled people.
Hence, A MOS may kindly be established for the welfare of the Disabled under the Ministry ofSocial Justice.
It has been almost 14 years since the Persons with Disability Act waspassed. Yet, it has not been properly implemented.
The Act itself is in dire need of amendments but this too could not be done. On the 1st of October 2007, India became the seventh country in the world to ratify theUnited Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) and it was a proud moment for all of us in the Indian disability movement.
In a few months, it will be 2 years since the ratification.
This needs urgent attention as well.
A mandate is already set out in the XIth Five Year Plan for the upgradation of the Disability Division of the Ministry of SocialJustice and Empowerment, to a Department.
I quote verbatim from the Planning Commission document:Clause 6.188: The ‘Disability Division’ of the Ministry of SocialJustice and Empowerment shall be strengthened with the status of aseparate ‘Department’ so that they can effectively interact with all the concerned Ministries/Departments and ensure that they fulfill theirresponsibility towards disabled persons, including the financial support enjoined on them.
This gesture would send a strong message not only to India, but to thewhole world, about your Government’s commitment to the cause ofdisability.
I urge you to consider this demand favourably.With best wishes and prayers to you and your team, for your secondterm in office.

With deep and personal regards,

k.Raghuraman.

M A B.ED.P.G.

ASSISTANT IN ENGLISH

Lady Wellintdon Higher Secondary School.

Triplicane,

Chennai 600059

Mobile: 09840018012

Email: thinkdontblink@gmail.comSkype: thinkdontblink

*friends, please read this forwarded message and send to our hounarableP.M. in your name to do the needful.

regards

raghu..

RAGHURAMAN'S COLUMN - POINTS TO PONDER

POINTS TO PONDER _ 1

By K.RAGHURAMAN

Friends, AS YOU ALL KNOW, we have just elected our 15th LOK SABHA.
And, of course by now even the new government would have been formed.
But, as of now, that is not my concern now.

Rather, I would like to focus on a special feature occurred in this Election.
Among thousands of candidates contested in this Election, a handful of them are really worthy to be noticed for their real mettle to serve the society. Yes! These candidates are truly men of action and only because of which they had secured a large number of votes.

To my knowledge three visually challenged contested the elections from north India. These Visually Challenged candidates are neither uneducated nor unemployed. They are real contributing citizens of our country, working and leading a life of dignity.

But, I am sorry to say that I could remember only MR. RAMBHAI’s name who gave a tough fight to both Congress and B.J.P. In fact he got around 27000 votes and this is because of good deeds that he had done to his constituency. He is really popular amongst the people there.

Even here in Chennai a social activist—a Sighted stood for the welfare of the Visually challenged community contested. And he is none other than MR.N.S. VENKATRAMAN the NANDHINI VOICE, an N.G.O devoted itself for the cause of the disabled.

What do we need to derive from this initiation?

That we, the friends, belonging to different Disabilities must at least now raise up to the occasion and come under one Forum in order to be a strong political force to be reckoned with.

So far we have been merely reciting the slogan that: “We must be part and parcel of the main stream”. But, we have never endeavoured to act accordingly. We should.

Firstly, we must master ourselves in our respective Fields and should be more informative and challenging at any point of time.

So, each and every step of us should be in the direction of improvement and elevation in terms of the whole community.

For this purpose both the seniors and juniors should walk together. With the former being the Beacon-light, the latter could reach the shore safe and sound.

But, at present the seniors and even those who are well settled in their lives disown themselves from social activities in the garb of protecting their families.

This is not to blame anyone, but, to take stock of the situation as such.

Therefore, let us all chart out an action plan to be a Member of Parliament in the next Lok Sabha.

Also, we could, as some say, demand reservation in the Parliament.

Also, friends belonging to different disabilities should co operate and co odinate to share a common platform from where each and everyone of our voice could be heard loud and clear.

Hence, I invite all my buddies to work with me to realize this mission.

“Not everything that is faced can be changed .
But nothing can be changed until it is faced.”

So, what are the steps that we could possibly take to cherish this goal?

My suggestions are ---

1: As I mentioned basically we need to bring in all our friends who are scattered in different parts of INDIA under one flag.
2: Then each and every learned disabled friend should create awareness amongst his/her juniors through whatever possible way that he/she is capable of. In fact they should be not merely a friend, but also a good guide all through their lives.
3: The budding ‘differently abled’ friends, instead of opting for the usual, much-trodden work streams, should focus on the unexplored professions in order to prove the fact that we are proficient to do any job.
4: Besides working for our own community, each differently abled must voice their opinions on all social issues and participate in all social projects genuinely to facilitate the process of oneness.

By doing these surely one could be an inspiring personality, a role model in his/her own way.
These are only my thoughts. It’s up to you to accept, modify or even add if you wish.

“Life is only once.
So let us cherish it with our sense.”.

A MILESTONE ! A MONTH LONG COMPUTER SENSITIZATION PROGRAMME FOR THE VISUALLY CHALENGED!

A MONTH LONG
COMPUTER SENSITIZATION PROGRAMMEFOR
THE VISUALLY CHALLENGED!
By
MR.V.SIVARAMAN

(SECRETARY-WELFARE FOUNDATION OF THE BLIND)
LECTURER – DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH PRESIDENCY COLLEGE, CHENNAI

The Indian Association of the Blind conducted a month-long Computer Literacy Programme For The Visually Challenged at its premises in Sundararajanpatti Madurai from the27th of April 2009 to the 27th of May 2009. Mr. V. Sivaraman, Secretary of the Welfare Foundation of the Blind acted as the Co-ordinator.

The main aim of the Programme was to teach the Visually Challenged basic computer skills to do their personal work with the help of a computer with Jaws, a screen-reading software.

· In the first week, all the 12 participants were given keyboard orientation.
· In the second week, Mr. K. Raguraman, an E.C Member of WELFARE FOUNDATION OF THE BLIND, taught them how to save a file in the place of their choice and how to create a new folder with a name.

· In the third week, Mr.Tajudeen, lecturer in English from Pondicherry, trained the participants how to edit and format the Word Document without anyone’s assistance.

· And, in the last week, Ms. Muthuselvi, an E.C Member of WELFARE FOUNDATION OF THE BLIND, taught them to send mail and search in a website. On the last day of the course, the participants were asked to type in their feedback in a word document and send it as attachment mail.

Based on their performance, marks were awarded to the participants.
Out of the twelve people who took part in the course, 3 are teachers and others are students.

Along with computer literacy soft skills were also taught to the participants.
In their feedback, all the participants expressed satisfaction with the course. They also gave their suggestions to make such courses more useful in the days to come.

k.raghuraman's column POINTS TO PONDER - 2

k.raghuraman’s column

POINTS TO PONDER – 2

IS MAN A MERE SLAVE TO MACHINE?

Now- a- days, people tend to become more and more mechanical. They don’t want to use their full potentials to the fullest extent. For example, they store the contact numbers their close relatives, even their own personal number and birthdates in some equipment so as to remember correctly.

But, the Memory Space in one’s brain is limitless. In fact, it is an endless treasure house from where one could both draw and deposit immense invaluable.

This useful gift was properly used by our ancestors and that is why our past education system was based on listening where the student was more attentive to Gurus words in order to assimilate and reflect on what he had learnt.

Although this system does not give much emphasis on writing skill, the student was very much in a position to be more proficient in his subject and thereby moulded his character by himself in due course of time. But, in contrary to this valuable practice, today our present education system has become rotten in the hands of so called learned educationists who give more importance to marks rather than to our discriminatory and comprehension faculties. In short, we are keen in quantity than on quality.

This sad state of affairs exists because of our lack of sensitivity towards our younger generation and that is why youngsters rely more on cheap ‘notes’ to reach that magic pass mark somehow or the other.

Even technology has done it’s best to ruin the morall of the students. For example, even in lower classes students are allowed to use calculators for simple Mathematical calculations. As a result, as they grow older, they depend more and more on the use of Computers. In fact, they have forgotten that even the Computers are invented only by a man’s mind.

To conclude, man has become a slave to machines which are actually made by him. This article is only to rekindle our thoughts in order to raise against all these evils which are introduced in the name of progress.

“Not everything that is faced can be changed;

But nothing can be changed until it is faced.”

K. RAGHURAMAN'S COLUMN -_INDIANS AND ENGLISH - POINTS TO PONDER

ENGLISH AND INDIANS – POINTS TO PONDER

Written by
K.Raghuraman(E.C. Member –WELFARE FOUNDATION OF THE BLIND)
P.G.Assistant in English
LADY WELLINGTON SCHOOL
CHENNAI

{* Mr.K.Raghuraman was born in the year 1979. He had his schooling in St.Louis School for the Blind and did his Post-Graduation Course in Englsih Literature in Madras Christian College, Tambaram, Chennai. He has an SLET (State Level Eligibility in Teaching) Degree also to his credit. He is doing his M.Phil now.

He was the Literary Secretary for one year while studying in XII Std.He writes articles and poetry, mainly on topical issues. He has penned poignant articles on various issues that afflict the society and a handful of his articles have now been compiled into a book titled ‘Samudhaayathil Naam’(We in the Society) , released on the occasion of the 18th Annual Day Celebrations of Welfare Foundation of the Blind, along with two collections of short-stories, one authored by the Founder-President of WFB, Dr.Jayaraman and the other by Venkatesan, a Tamil Teacher.

Listening to Music is Raghuraman’s favourite pastime and he also enjoys playing Drums. He teaches Spoken-English and with adequate resources he plans to do it on a large scale and on a regular basis.

WE NEED EMPATHY; NOT SYMPATHY is what he wants to drive home emphatically.}

* In the photograph Mr.Raghuraman is in the middle

*

It is a well-known fact that India is a land of diversity. From Language to Religion everything is different. Still, in spirit we are Indians.

As people in each state speak different languages, It becomes a nessecity to have a common language that connects every Indian for the purpose of communication. In this context English plays a vital role.

During the period of colonisation by the Britishers, English was introduced for the purpose of communication. But, as time went on people were forced to learn English and this led to the spread of English in India.

After the independence of India in 1947, the Indian Government decided to retain English language for the next 15 years so as to find an Indian language as the linking language all over the country. But, no fruitful effort was taken in this regard and hence English continued it’s dominance in our soil. Though Hindi was made the national language after a long struggle, it did not find place in the hearts of the people. As a result of this, English gets rooted in every corner of the society. In fact, from the position of a link language English has become a godly language. People have started to equate English with knowledge, respect, dignity, high status, holiness, so on and so forth. To testify this statement, we could site the example of how people degrade a person wearing dhoti and shirt and revere the same man when wearing a pant and shirt. Though India is rich in philosophy, they have failed to understand that “appearances are always deceptive.”

The reason for this slavish mentality is that we Indians fail to find and accept any of our languages as the link language. We feel proud to clash with ourselves and thereby give room for an alien to dominate us.

We are not here to degrade English language as such but we are here to point out the wrong attitude that we have towards English. As a matter of fact, English has attracted a few scholars who have penned their writings in English which in turn has flourished into a new branch of study called Indian Writing in English. In this context one should understand that English is used only as a tool of our expression of our uniqueness. But, this is not the case today because the appreciation and status that Indian Writing in English enjoys is not being shared by the Literatures in regional languages. In fact, we have gone to the extent of equating English with literacy. In other words we are gradually destroying our inner self by giving room to an alien who really does not match our nature. In reality, a human being can develop well only when he/she thinks and speaks in his/her mother tongue. But, we feel proud to hear a small kid speaking in English at the initial stage itself. This attitude and habit will surely make us lose our real identity.

In fact, even this article is written in English only out of compulsion. And, people accept anything in English as a valuable and a valid one. This shouldn’t be the case. Atleast from now onwards people should try to realize the uniqueness of their respective Mother tongues and live accordingly. At the same time, they should not be fanatic. Instead, we should join hands to explore the possibility of choosing and accepting any of our Indian languages as the link language that help us communicate and interact with each other.







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