The boys who checkmated blindness
| Date :12-Jul-2019 |
Soundarya Pradhan (R) makes a move as his father Rabi Ranjan Pradhan looks on during the all India Fide Rating Chess Tournament under way at Dr Hedgewar Smarak Samiti in Reshimbag on Thursday.
By Paritosh Pramanik:
Blind by birth, Prachuriya and Soundarya, shimmer in chess
IT IS said tragedy strikes only once devastating the surroundings. But, when the catastrophe pounds twice, it’s destiny’s call. Being at the receiving end of a tragedy twice, the Pradhans were shattered. But they never lost hope that their day would come and the worries would be wiped out. Rabi Ranjan Pradhan and his wife Jayanti were over the moon when they were blessed with a baby boy at the end of the 20th century.
But their joy was short-lived when they came to know the that their son, Prachuriya, was blind by birth. Heavens fell on the joint family of five brothers and a sister of Boden village in Naupada district of Odisha. Somehow, they gathered courage and picked themselves to lead a normal life taking care of their son. Two years later, the new millennium doubled their agony. Their second son Soundarya, too, was born with visual disorder. The Pradhans were gutted. Both of their kids could not see the colourful world. It was a torrid time which they ventured for several years, unable to show their kids the life in red, purple, blue, green and other colours.
The brothers only know and could feel only one colour — Black, dark black. The kids — Prachuriya, now 21 and Soundarya, 19, — have never seen the face of their parents. But Pradhans did not lost hope. Rabi Ranjan and Jayanti decided to bring up their kids like other children. Today, after more than 20 years, Prachuriya and Soundarya are winning accolades in chess and in academics too, topping their exams year after year. The belief of Pradhans in the Almighty is paying off.
The brothers are winning battles and awards on the 64 squares, making their family proud. In Nagpur to participate in the Aamdar Chashak FIDE Rating Chess Tournament at Dr Hedgewar Smarak Samiti, Reshimbag, Soundarya, a 100 per cent visually impaired, was going strong and was joint leader with four points on Thursday morning. His father, as always, was providing him support, passing him water bottle, taking him to the washroom during his fifth round match against top seed VAV Rajesh on the top board when, Rabi Ranjan went 20 years down memory lane to share with ‘The Hitavada’ the ordeal and the difficulties they faced while bringing up their ‘special’ kids. “Earlier, it was very difficult. Our kids were born with Leber Congenital Amaurosis (LCA) disorder. It is 1 in 1000 disorders,” said Rabi Ranjan, watching his younger son compete in the fifth round match.
“Our life turned upside down within four years. I was Principal of Biju Patnaik College in Boden in Odisha. But I had to vacate the post to take care of my kids. I decided to step down as principal and took a language professors’ job,” Pradhan said. He even detached himself from the world. “I was Lingual Theatre Director when I used to direct plays. I gave up that too. I detached myself from society. But then I thought where will it take me and my family. I started grooming my kids like normal ones,” narrated Pradhan. Both Prachuriya and Soundarya, despite being 100 per cent blind, have best of the brains. Pradhan decided to put them along with regular students when Prachuriya was in 10th standard. But a government school in Boden refused to admit them. “I wanted them to be like any other kid. From a school for blind I tried the admit them to a regular school but they refused. Then I took them to a farther school, which was around 3-4 kms away from our home.
Prachuriya got admission and secured above 90 per cent in his board exams. “The previous school management, who earlier had refused us, came to my home and admitted their mistake and requested to send Soundarya to their school,” said Pradhan. Chess was in Pradhans’ blood with Rabi Ranjan’s elder Keshranjan Pradhan being a national-level player. The two kids learned the basics from their uncle Keshranjan and then from Durgaprasad Mahapatra. After that it became more difficult to give the two proper coaching in Boden. “Later, they got coaching from IMs Shekhar Sahu, Sagar Saha and Satyapragmya. After that they started taking help of computers and took coaching by playing on it. It was because of softwares—JAWS and NVDA— they started learning chess at higher level. The software converts text into speech which both my kids learned,” mentioned Pradhan. Both Prachuriya and Soundarya are very fast learners and can remembers things quickly.
“If God has taken their sight, He gave them the sharpest of brains,” Pradhan proudly said. “Soundarya has cleared JEE (Mains) and is studying in National Institute of Technology (NIT), Jamshedpur Second Year. It is one of the top Institutes in the country and getting admission itself is a Herculean task. But as I said, Soundarya is very bright in academics too, he cleared the JEE which fetched him this seat,” Pradhan said. Pradhan who will be retiring from his job in 4-5 years, said it is very difficult to make the ends meet for their travels during the tournaments.
“The main thing is lack of sponsorship. Soundarya has represented India in several international tournaments. He has visited eight European countries and made the country proud by winning medals. He won World Junior Silver Medal at Poland last year and fetched silver at Asian Para Games in Indonesia. But still, no corporate house came forward to sponsor his tours,” Pradhan lamented. “After Indonesia win, Prime Minister Narendra Modi felicitated Soundarya in New Delhi.
After that there were a few felicitation functions in Odisha but there was hardly any concrete decision on sponsoring him. Being the single earner of the family I am finding it difficult to foot bills of Soundarya’s tournament travels,” said Pradhan. Now that Soundarya is playing in the open category, he will have to participate in as many tournaments as he can which will help him in getting IM, GM norms. “And for that we need sponsorships. Hope some hands come forward in Soundarya’s support,” concluded Pradhan. )