Women's Day Special !

On the eve of women's day , I take pride in introducing a lady from the dark. A lady who epitomizes bravery,courage and the grit to making one's life remarkable.

It was sometime in the mid of September 2012 I had come home for a weekend. My very home,Hyderabad.My folks and I wanted to be at a new place for dinner.While debating on our varied tastes,availability of exotic food and a different ambience,it struck to me about a place that my friends had suggested me about how one can dine in the dark.A concept based hotel.So the four of us headed for it with good levels of enthusiam.

On reaching the place, we inquired the receptionist about the vacancies.As it was a theme based hotel,customers were allowed inside only on slot basis.We realised that we were late for the current slot by five minutes and had to wait for forty minutes to get into the next.The receptionist then came up with an idea about paying a visit to the same theme based exhibition that was going on.She said it was a short tour of forty minutes and we would be escorted soon.We made the first four entries and in no time a bunch of college students joined us .

At the entrance , a guard took away all our watches, spectacles, phones or any item that could emit light in the dark and handed to each of us thin white canes.The nine of us were asked to form a queue and enter one by one.It was a dark zone. 360 degrees complete darkness.For a moment we thought we were lost.When we were groping for a way to move about comfortably, from the inside we heard a strong and prominent human voice that came closer to us and all of us were startled.
The voice said it would be our guide for the next forty minutes and asked us to introduce ourselves.All of us obediently told out our names and the voice asked appropriate questions.Through out,we were asked to do two things.First was to hold our canes tighter and the second to keep walking towards the voice.

The tour had started.Pitch dark.Only the nine of us and the voice.The voice said  we had entered a grocery store .We had no inkling of how to judge that so we were asked to touch and feel the greens,veggies and the fruits. All of us were bloody scared to move even an inch far from each other. Holding our hands together we moved forward to touch the objects. I touched something and shouted it was an apple. The voice chuckled and agreed. Next, we entered into a super market. We had to figure out what was to our right and left. Kurtis and pyjamas or shirts and trousers.Within a couple of minutes all of us yelled with excitement as if we had discovered some god forsaken stuff. Even Archimedes' Eureka would have sounded a little softer when he discovered the principle of buoyancy. The voice bursted out with laughter and ordered us to keep moving.All of us moved out of the market in a snail's pace and did not dare to take a step further.We were asked to halt and re-arrange ourselves in the order which it called out. Intermittently,the bunch of us and the voice asked questions to each other.We shot questions from sports, politics, cooking,education and current affairs.We were flabbergasted by the voice's response.After the chit-chat,we continued our journey.We kept moving to our left and stepped onto a wooden bridge.We were now entering a jungle.The bridge was right above a stream of jetting water and to its right was a hollow object.We were curious to know what it was and started to feel it hitting with our canes. The voice asked us to step into it. First the voice entered and slowly we followed it.It was a boat.A big round boat.Moving inch by inch,all of us settled and clinched our fists tight against the rim of the boat.The voice said that the boat was in movement and its making way into lush green forests.We could hear cries of animals and chirps of birds.All of us shivered and came closer.Our hearts were pounding.To maintain composure,one of us were asked to sing and the voice joined too.In a short while,the boat journey was over.We stepped out and moved in the direction where we heard new voices.It was a cafeteria.  The new voices introduced themselves.We decided to eat.But then to struck us on how we would know the the amount we were paying.One of us handed over a note and asked for a cup of coffee.Instantly,the voice at the counter said that was a hundred rupee note and it would tender the right amount of change.We were puzzled.After sipping coffee and having snacks,the voice that escorted us told that we had reached the end of our trip.We stood up and with our canes we fumbled for some light.

Though we had a great time, we urged to move towards the exit and get back to our real world.We moved in the direction of the voice and it stopped.At the door was a perfect silhouette of a lady.Our escort.All of us rushed  out of the exit for some light to see her.An absolutely stunning personality and a great beauty. But with twitched eyes.We were awestruck.The lady introduced herself as Nisha.

When Nisha was a three year old kid,she was suffering from a brain tumour.During treatment her optic nerves were impacted and lost her vision.Despite all the hardships,she chose to be well educated and stay strong against all the odds.Right then as a kid,she accepted her fate of life and till date she has been striving hard to carve a niche in the society.This brave lady has not only set herself as an example to the general public but also to all those who are visually impaired or handicapped.

In our daily routines,we come across various people but experiencing their kind of adversities in the appropriate environment certainly makes a difference. For those who haven't been to this place,excuse for breaking out the thrill.For those who might not get to pay a visit ,its a piece of gyaan and for those who would go in near future, please do come up with your versions of stories.

Venue:  Dialogue In the Dark
             InOrbit Mall, Hi-Tech City

PS:I am glad to write this testimony to Nisha and I hope it would reach her some day ! :)