Odisha Blind Foundation (OBF) released a book named ‘Alok Pathara Jatridala' on Friday to commemorate 44{+t}{+h}death anniversary of Louis Braille.
This book was released at a function organised on the premises of the only Braille press in Odisha, functioning in the city. It is the third book published by the OBF to make general public know about social activists of the world and our country who have played a major role to attach the visually impaired to the mainstream. The other two books published by the OBF in the past were related to lives of Louis Braille and Helen Keller.
This function was attended by president of Chinmaya Mission unit of the city Rajendra Prasad Patnaik, noted literary personality Amiyabala Patnaik, visually impaired activist Bijay Kumar Rath and several dignitaries of the city.
The newly released book was initially written in English by R.S.Chohan and was later abridged and published in Bengali. The OBF has published the Odia translation of the Bengali version. Apart from international personalities who have worked for the visually impaired, this book contains life stories of Indian visually impaired activists who played a major role for uplift of the blind in India. Through this book one can learn how the Braille scripts for different Indian languages were developed. Mr Rath said this book will surely provide mental strength to the literate visually impaired young generation not to lose hope and work hard to become part of society. He said the Braille version of the book will be published in future.