Blind faith in spirit of patriotism

KANPUR: They cannot see but they made their presence felt when it comes to participation in Independence Day celebrations. These are visually-impaired students of Kanpur Andh Vidyalaya and Jyoti Badhir Vidyalaya.
Talk to them and you will feel that they are in no way different from the other kids their age. The children were busy making national flags, rehearsing the national song and humming the tunes of the various patriotic songs during the practice session.
"The excitement for the Independence Day has been at its peak since the day the children started practising for the cultural events, as these kids are always ready to do something new. Besides participating in the programmes to be held on August 15, the children are even thrilled about their scheduled performances," said Indrajeet, principal of Kanpur Andh Vidyalaya.
In fact, at a time when the independence day celebrations have been reduced to mere tokenism with people treating it as just another holiday, the enthusiasm among these children keeps the spirit of patriotism alive in the hearts of many.
"Being visually impaired does not mean that these kids do not have any patriotic feelings. We do enjoy the day like normal people do. We can only express our feeling through poems, songs and that is what we do every year on this occasion. We even teach our students the relevance of this day," says Santosh Kumar Sharma, visually impaired teacher of Kanpur Andh Vidyalaya.
Ask the reason for celebrating Independence Day and pat comes the reply from Amit, one of the students at Kanpur Andh Vidyalaya, "Every year we celebrate the day with enthusiasm and would like to serve the country in the same way as freedom fighters did to free the country from the British."