MY SON WILL NOT A BEGGAR BE

MY SON WILL NOT A BEGGAR BE

   (What things does a normal child like to see ? Was ved's childhood different from that of other children ?)

    In India as elsewhere enery girl or boy has fond and warm memories of his childhood, from the day he begins to talk to his mother and father. Invariably a child learns and recognizes the faces of his mother and father, of sesters and brothers who play with  him, or the servants who prepare his meals or watch him play in a nursery full of toys. He must also remember the rich colours of the butterflies and birds which children enerywhere always love to watch. But when I was three and a half, all these memories were wxpunged, and with the prolonged sickness (meningitis I started living in a world of four sense - that is , a world in which colours and faces and light and darkness are unkonwn.

If my age and the sickness deprived my of the treasured memories of sight, they also reduced things which are valued so much in the sighted world to nothing more than mere words, empty of meaning. I started liveing in a universe where it was not the flood of sunshine streaming through the nursery window or the colours of the rainbow, a sunset or a full moon that mattered but the feel of the sun against the skin, the slow drizzling sound of the spattering rain, the feel of the air just before the coming of the quiet night, the smell of the grass on a warm morning. It was a universe where at first - but only at first - I made my way fumbling and faltering.

(How did Ved's family react to his blindness ? Were they very unhappy, o4 eie they think he would recover? What did they do about his problem?)

   It was good that I lost sight when I did, because having no memories of seeing, there was nothing to look back to, nothing to miss. I went blind in November 1937. At that time we were living in Gujarat, in the province of Punjab in northem India. After my sickness, we moved to Lahore, a few miles away, but the number of relatives who came to sympathize made my father ask for another transfer, this time to Karnal, where we had neither friends nor relatives. There we got a cottage on the canal bank, built in very peaceful and quiet surroundings.
As might be wxpected, in the beginning it was tough for all of us, for mother and myt fater, for my three sisters and my brother, and for me too. The illness had left me weak. The servants avoided my as though I were and evil eye persoified. My sesters treated me with care, as though I were a fragile doll, and mother wept. My father, who was a doctor in the public health service, was grateful that I had got prompt and good medical treatment, for delay would have affected my mind  or endangered my life. But he , like the rest, had no hope.

A stage of complete inaction therefore followed my blindness. In part, this was Jue to the immediate shock of the illness, but more important still, the difficult situation was caused by ignorance of the potentialities of a blind child, since the only blind persons my parents saw were beggars.

  But now, by fate or the will of god, blindness had struck not only a child of the well to do, but that of an excellently trained doctor, who found his training in this instance useless. Still, his wide medical experience had prepared him for and acceptance of this tragedy, and he understood that any course of action moust begin the realization that I would be blind for the rest of my life.

   (Bed's motehr had her own ideas of why her son went blind. She also her own methods fo treating him. What were they ? Did they do him any good ?)

   My mother on the other hand, could not convince herself that my sight would never return: she did not have the medical experience of my father, and she blamed something in her past for the tragedy.

  The family pandit, upon whose advice, mother had relied almost from her childhood, was called in and consulted. "He knows more about religion and science," mother said with pride, "than my other pandit in our province." I was taken before him, and for a long time I sat in my mother's lap while he waslost in thought. After a he studied her forehead, mumbling steadly. He said he found himself inadequate, and more pandits wold have to be consulted. At his request, they were called and questioned as to what have to be consulted. At his request, they were called and questioned as to what atonement could be made. They all agreed that by doing penace for her sins, my mother could improve my chance of regaining sight They prescribed methods ranging from intensive prayers to strnuous physical wxrtions, and for a fee they agreed to perform part of the mecessary religious ceremonies. Each pandit's advice was carefully heeded. Since my mother knew that my father would dislike such methods, she kept them secret, making it doubly hard for herself.
   Along with this religioun counsel, there were a sreies of visits hakims (physicians who followed the Greek or Uani system of medicine). These quacks prescribed all types of concocted drops to put in my eyes. The surmas., ehich were administered at all hours of the day and night, burned and stung my eyes, and teh only soothing  part of the miseable ordeal was the loving caress of mother afterwards.

One night when my mother was administering these eye drops, and I was protesting with loud cries. my father unexpectedly returned. He asked and I told him why I was crying. He was very angry.

He forbade her to make any more visits to the hakims, and strictly prohibited the purchase of my more surmas.

  Then he gently lifled me from her arms, and took my away. with steady hands, he bathed my stinging eyes. After this incident, even though we stopped going to hakims, now and then application of surmas continues till I was eleven. But they were very mild, and my mother always obtained my consent in advance.

(How did Bed's father dealwith his son's blindness ?)

   I remember other little tests my put me through. One day she perceived that just before I arrive at a closed door, I would stop and reach for the handle to open it. She began letting my go about the house by myself and she dicovered that I seldom ran into things. She credited the hakim and the stinging drops, but every evening she would hold her hand up before my face and ask me to tell her where it was. She used shake her hand before me so that myriads of pores next to, below and above my ears could feel her hand even when it was a foot away. The air currants helped me to spot it,. But she wasn't satisfied with this. She wanted me to tell her wheteher the light was on ot off. When I failed this test, she was unhappy again, but I soon caught on and would listen for the click fo the switch and then tell her. Sometimes she would fip the switch very rapidly time and again, and I would always count the clicks and gine her the right answer.

  Although in my case there was an obstacle that seemed usurmountable, father was determined to try everything. He read all available literature on blindness. He learned that almost all India's blind people had turned to begging for their livelihood, or had become owners of pan and biri shops and spent their days rolling nuts and condiments in a betel leaf or tobacco in cigarette paper. He was determined that this was not going to be the fate of his second son, and he started corresponding with many of the prominent educational authorities, asking for their advice. Teh replies were not optmistic. For blind, educational facilities and personnel were limited, and often teh schools became semi - asylums with all ages grouped together in classes without any gradation system.

   My father still persisted, for he knew that my staying at home would result in any becoming a pampered child. He realized, as well, that I would have difficulty playing with normal children, and that my mother would always be afraid to let me leave the immediate premises.

At last he heard of Dr. R M Halder, Principal of Dadar School for the Blind in Bombay. My father wrote to him asking for advice. Dr. Halder showed unusual interest in my case, and promised to take special care and personal responsibility for me if I were sent to his school.

When my mother learned of my father's decision to send me to the Dadar School, she was appalled. She could not understand the reason for sending me nine hundred miles away from home to attend school with orphans and children of the poorest classes,. Yes she placed her faith in my father's superior judgement, and in her quiet way, she agreed.

-Ved Mehta