New Year gift to blind book lovers

Sharmi Adhikary, December 6, 2006

Voice of World, a Kolkata-based NGO, has a gift for blind book lovers. It will be releasing a Braille edition of Rabindranath Tagore's short stories, Galpo Guchha, during the Kolkata Book Fair. Tagore's stories have a unique flavour and are popular in academic and literary circles. Now, those who are visually impaired will get to enjoy such great literature. Every year the NGO releases one new book in Braille during the Book Fair.

Voice of World had earlier transcribed Gitabitan, a collection of songs written by Tagore into Braille. "Blind students can now use this book in their schools where it is a text," said Sukumar Chakraborty, Principal of the school for blind people run by the NGO. The endeavour, however, is quite a costly one, with each page where Braille is done costing Rs 100. The book will be sent to different libraries.

The NGO also brings out a fortnightly broadsheet called 'The Voice of the World' where blind reporters go out to do stories and cover events. The boys and girls put in a lot of hard work and the newspaper is widely appreciated