Visually impaired honoured for making a mark in their lives at SCD Government College.

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, June 27

Visually-impaired persons, who have made a mark in their lives, was honoured during a function organised by the Punarjot Guldasta Eye Bank Society here today.

The function at SCD Government College saw the visually-impaired veterans share their words of wisdom.

Several persons, including Dr S Tarsem, Prof CL Bhalla, Netarheen Association president Devinder Singh, Nimita Sharma and Yogesh Sharma, professors at Government College for Girls; and Sandeep Kaur who performed during the cultural programme were honoured.

Dr S Tarsem inspired everyone with his words. His vision kept decreasing till he became completely blind due to a genetic problem by the age of 31, he braved the misfortune with courage.

He said with the literary environment at home — his brother Harbans Lal is a poet — he also started getting appreciation for writing poetry which started getting published in newspapers and magazines. Then he started writing stories. He wrote his first anthology of stories ‘Katak da Bukk’ in 1972, and another collection ‘Ajj de Maseehe’ in 1977. He written and edited around 43 books, including stories, poetry and plays. He continues to write even now at the age of 75. His book ‘Doonghe Sagar, Vagde Darya’ about pen-portraits of personalities of Punjab was published last year.

He said if visual impairment cannot be treated, it must be accepted as there is much more to life.

Prof CL Bhalla was honoured for making a mark in music with ‘never-say-die-spirit’. He never let visual impairment become an impediment.

He said he was admitted to an institute for the blind at the age of nine where he began to learn music. Though he was a brilliant student and also mastered skills in handicrafts, but he chose music as a career. “I am fortunate and amongst the few who were able to record and broadcast for All India Radio and have been an A-grade artist for both classic vocal and instrumental music,” he said. He carved his niche in classical and devotional music, including geet, ghazal and bhajan. He also taught music at the PAU for several years.

He said with technology opening up more avenues, visually-impaired persons had wide choice of careers now. So there was no reason to get disappointed, he said.