" One has to play the game of cards with the cards on hand. So too in life, one has to live with the constraints by one's Destiny. Hence, play the game, live your life, as best as you can, as best as possible " ( Spring Leaves by KMG )
" There is only
One God ------ the One Omnipresent,
One religion ------ the religion of Love,
One caste ------ the caste of Humanity,
One law ------ the law of Duty,
One language ------ the language of the Heart. "
- Sri Satya Sai Baba.
Of all the sense-organs that we are blessed with, the most precious ones are 'eyes'. It is said " Sarvendriyaanaaam Naina Pradhhaanam". Blindness is a terrible handicap, a terrible curse, when one cannot see, read or write. However, there was one benefactor to the blind, who invented a device by which even the totally incurable blind can at least read. That great person was Louis Braille. Today I propose to relate a brief life-sketch of that renowned personage:
The Vision of Louis Braille
It is not unusual that we take many things for granted. We do not realize that what is so normal and ordinary for us, may be something for which some others would dream for, or perhaps can never have. We get a jolt when we come across a statement like " I was so worried that I do not have shoes, until I saw someone without legs ". Yes, good sight, good hearing, able hands and legs, sound functioning of all sense-organs --- all these we just take for granted ( Indeed, one must be humbly thankful to Providence, for having been blessed with all the faculties intact, for a healthy and happy life). But many many curse their fate that they are denied some of these, and have to live with a permanent disability. We shudder to find someone being not able to see, or hear, or talk, or walk, as we do, something so normal and commonplace. We cannot even imagine how distressing such a life would be, how terrible would it be to face life and the world, while groaning under such a handicap lifelong.
If in present times the totally blind ( for whose even fully open eyes, the entire world is nothing but an utter darkness ), are able to obtain the satisfaction of being able to read, they must bow their head to, and express their gratitude to Louis Braille. Braille gave the world a system of reading that has helped the visually challenged.
One God ------ the One Omnipresent,
One religion ------ the religion of Love,
One caste ------ the caste of Humanity,
One law ------ the law of Duty,
One language ------ the language of the Heart. "
- Sri Satya Sai Baba.
Of all the sense-organs that we are blessed with, the most precious ones are 'eyes'. It is said " Sarvendriyaanaaam Naina Pradhhaanam". Blindness is a terrible handicap, a terrible curse, when one cannot see, read or write. However, there was one benefactor to the blind, who invented a device by which even the totally incurable blind can at least read. That great person was Louis Braille. Today I propose to relate a brief life-sketch of that renowned personage:
The Vision of Louis Braille
It is not unusual that we take many things for granted. We do not realize that what is so normal and ordinary for us, may be something for which some others would dream for, or perhaps can never have. We get a jolt when we come across a statement like " I was so worried that I do not have shoes, until I saw someone without legs ". Yes, good sight, good hearing, able hands and legs, sound functioning of all sense-organs --- all these we just take for granted ( Indeed, one must be humbly thankful to Providence, for having been blessed with all the faculties intact, for a healthy and happy life). But many many curse their fate that they are denied some of these, and have to live with a permanent disability. We shudder to find someone being not able to see, or hear, or talk, or walk, as we do, something so normal and commonplace. We cannot even imagine how distressing such a life would be, how terrible would it be to face life and the world, while groaning under such a handicap lifelong.
If in present times the totally blind ( for whose even fully open eyes, the entire world is nothing but an utter darkness ), are able to obtain the satisfaction of being able to read, they must bow their head to, and express their gratitude to Louis Braille. Braille gave the world a system of reading that has helped the visually challenged.
For centuries, the visually challenged were condemned to a life without books or reading. Until the beginning of the 19th century, when Louis Braille came along.
Braille was born in Coupvray, a little town near Paris, in 1809. His father was a cobbler. When Braille was three years old, he crept into his father's shop, to try and make shoes! But the awl, a sharp pointed tool used to pierce holes in leather, slipped from his hand, and pierced his eye, destroying it for ever. Soon his other eye also got infected, and by the time he was four years old, his vision was lost.
He went to the village School with his friends, and was a spirited and bright boy. But, it soon became apparent to him that he would not be able to learn much there, because of his inability to read and write. Determind to study, Louis went to Paris to attend a special school.
At school, Louis who loved to read, discovered that there were special books for them. Since these books had large letters that were raised off the pages, their pages were very big, and the books themselves very heavy and bulky. The books were expensive too, so the school had only 14 books. Louis started to read the books enthusiastically, but soon found it a tiring exercise. It took him so long to 'feel' and 'read' the books that there was no enjoyment left in the experience. But this indeed set him thinking.
Then, one day, in 1821, Charles Barbier, a soldier visited the School. He brought with him a system called "night writing" that he had invented, at Napolean's request, which would help soldiers in the battlefront, to communicate with one another without talking, or showing a light that would reveal their position. It was made of 12 raised dots that could be combined to represent different words and sounds. Unfortunately, the army thought the system too complicated, and so rejected it.
Braille immediately saw the potential of this system. Over the next few months, he worked hard, and simplified Barber's code, until he developed a clear and simple system of writing that used only six raised dots. He also discovered that his father's awl -- the very tool that damaged his eye ---- was perfect for making the raised dots. He spent the next few days developing an alphabet made up entirely of six raised dots. The position of different dots would represent different letters of the alphabet. When he punched out sentences with the awl, and then read them, by feeling them, he was ecstatic.
When Louis presented his new method of reading to Dr. Pignier, the Principal, he was so impressed that he immediately made it the official method of the Institute. Louis Braille became a teacher at the Institute, and was later promoted as Professor.
Braille died at the age of 43 from tuberculosis. France remembers him proudly as one of her greatest sons. Braille was buried in Paris in Pantheon, the home of France's great national heroes.
( Reproduced from an article by Santhini Govindan in Hindu Daily recently ).
jfi ( just for info ): Former Sony President Noria Ohga, who developed the audio CD and led the Company from 1982 - 95, died on 23rd Apr '11 in Tokyo at the age of 81. He designed the CD of 12 cm (4.8 ins) dia for 75 min of music. Even today it is the same. Sony sold the world's first CD in 1982, which overtook LP records sale in next 5 years. Ohga was multi-talented: An Opera singer, Chairman of Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, as also an experienced Pilot flying his own plane. (from a news item on 24th)
At school, Louis who loved to read, discovered that there were special books for them. Since these books had large letters that were raised off the pages, their pages were very big, and the books themselves very heavy and bulky. The books were expensive too, so the school had only 14 books. Louis started to read the books enthusiastically, but soon found it a tiring exercise. It took him so long to 'feel' and 'read' the books that there was no enjoyment left in the experience. But this indeed set him thinking.
Then, one day, in 1821, Charles Barbier, a soldier visited the School. He brought with him a system called "night writing" that he had invented, at Napolean's request, which would help soldiers in the battlefront, to communicate with one another without talking, or showing a light that would reveal their position. It was made of 12 raised dots that could be combined to represent different words and sounds. Unfortunately, the army thought the system too complicated, and so rejected it.
Braille immediately saw the potential of this system. Over the next few months, he worked hard, and simplified Barber's code, until he developed a clear and simple system of writing that used only six raised dots. He also discovered that his father's awl -- the very tool that damaged his eye ---- was perfect for making the raised dots. He spent the next few days developing an alphabet made up entirely of six raised dots. The position of different dots would represent different letters of the alphabet. When he punched out sentences with the awl, and then read them, by feeling them, he was ecstatic.
When Louis presented his new method of reading to Dr. Pignier, the Principal, he was so impressed that he immediately made it the official method of the Institute. Louis Braille became a teacher at the Institute, and was later promoted as Professor.
Braille died at the age of 43 from tuberculosis. France remembers him proudly as one of her greatest sons. Braille was buried in Paris in Pantheon, the home of France's great national heroes.
( Reproduced from an article by Santhini Govindan in Hindu Daily recently ).
jfi ( just for info ): Former Sony President Noria Ohga, who developed the audio CD and led the Company from 1982 - 95, died on 23rd Apr '11 in Tokyo at the age of 81. He designed the CD of 12 cm (4.8 ins) dia for 75 min of music. Even today it is the same. Sony sold the world's first CD in 1982, which overtook LP records sale in next 5 years. Ohga was multi-talented: An Opera singer, Chairman of Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, as also an experienced Pilot flying his own plane. (from a news item on 24th)
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