Visually-impaired too get feel of forts!

Visually impaired students with their coordinators and others near a fort.

Staff Reporter :

“Four years ago, Shirish Darvekar, National Research and development Co-ordinator of “Saksham, Madhav Netra Pedhee” had seen the dream to show forts of Vidarbha to visually-impaired students. Criteria for the same was students should have history as a subject in their academics and they should be 100% blind. And the activities regarding this dream started.

The most of the plan might have gone in the cold. But last month, he met Atul Guru, member of Durgpratishthan and Central Government employee in railway, then he also meet people of Rotary Club of Nagpur Downtown to get the financial support, especially due to the decision of Sandeep Deshpande and Project Director Virendra Patrikar. Nagpur District Collector Ravindra Thakare flagged off the journey that left the Madhav Netra pedhi. The energy of the members of this campaign was not diminished till the occasion of visiting Sitabardi fort. One more vision about this project was to make aware government, Normal students Kailash Inwate, Ravi Bisen, Satish Uke, Praveen Mishra, Akshay Batulwar, Ashutosh Nriparanarayan, Aniket Uike, Vishal Chakra, Mangesh Vanjari and Anmol Shahu students and Sheetal Meshram, Maya Bhagat, Vaishali Pare, Rajshree Sharad, Mamta.

Sonam Thakre, Triveni Kokate, Shraddha Chirkute, Shabana Sheikh and Archana Dehria, participated in the campaign with great courage. Considering the inaccessibility of most of the castles selected, an assistant (escort) was required for each blind student. For this, Aash Kedar, Sanjay Gangurde, Yash Mahajan, Yash Bhagat, Saurabh Borekar, students of BPNISW College of Rotract Club, Yash Somkumber, Akshay Jumanake, Jitesh Meshram, Aniket Madawi, Roshan Madawi, and Kiran Dadmal, Khashrangati Ryangt, Trupti, Kajal Nade, Kajal Moon, Payal Akotkar, Ruchika Jadhav, Pranjal Khandagale, Bumleshnari Shinde.

Thus, project was successfully completed due to the hard work taken by Managers Atul Guru master blaster, having knowledge of Indian forts, Shirish Darvekar, Sandhya Darvekar, Arvind Sahasrabuddhe, Rashmi Urade, Sujata Sarage and members of BPNISW's Rotract Club Vivek Shahare, Vivek Borkar and Koushup Dangare. The fort darshan expedition was a study tour so it could not be completed without specialization in history and forts. Composite Regional Center (CRC) instructor Mohammed Aslam trained all the visually impaired and his escort. On the same day, the touch-up experiment through the miniature models of the various forts and architectures created by Atul Guru helped to understand the actual forts. Information on select castles was made available through two Braille scripts and audio clips of the castles (cast in the WhatsApp group of Vidarbha Fort Darshan). Expedition started with the appearance of Renuka Mata of Mahur.

A visually impaired student touched the golden mask of the goddess and took blessing of the goddess. The forts covered include Mahurgad, Sindkhedaraja, the birthplace of Jijau, overlooking the world-renowned Lonar lake, Balpur fort (Akola), Gavilgarh in Chikhaldari is a well-known fort in Vidarbha, Achalpur Fort, Amaner (Jalakheda, Tahsil Katol) fort located at the confluence of the three rivers, Nagardhan Fort of Ramtek, Pawni fort, Ambagad (District Bhandara), Chandrapur, Manikgad fort, Sitabirdi in Nagpur. The experience was fantastic as students got knowledge and learnt many more things beyond the classroom activities. Vision is not required to prove ability. With the rest of the senses, the goals can be achieved, and it is proven that once again, you can have the courage of a normal person, said Sujata Sarage, the coordinator.