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issue 4 may-june 2005
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Headlines : India News
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Kolkata eye doctor adds new stream to philately

Subhra Priyadarshini; PTI; May 19, 2005

As a tribute to legends who overcame their visual impairment to make a mark in history, a Kolkata-based doctor has put together a unique collection of stamps of famous blind people, adding a new stream, ‘ophthaphilately’, to the age old hobby, according to a PTI report.

From stamps of John Milton to Galileo and J. Pulitzer to Helen Keller, Stevie Wonder, Marconi and Theodore Roosevelt, Samar K. Basak's collection is a who's who of famous blind and visually impaired personalities.

Himself an eye specialist, Basak's unusual hobby stems from his recognition of the immense potential of people who have set aside physical shortcomings, lived a productive life and contributed to the development of mankind.

"Many of these people, eminent in different fields of human endeavour, were either born blind or lost their eye sight at some point during their lives. They were well known in their own right."

The 'ophthaphilatelist', as he calls himself, has chronicled all sorts of visual impairment -- bilateral (blind in both eyes) or unilateral (single eye blindness) in a poster which he published recently in the silver jubilee number of the International Eye Bank, a pioneer in the country's eye donation movement.

Other India News stories in this issue:
India now has school for guide dogs for the blind
First-ever National Blind Football Tournament organised in Delhi
IGNOU developing programmes for care-givers of disabled children
Healthcare B.P.O. to start training blind boys
Mumbai hospital to develop artificial retina
Madhya Pradesh textbooks to have a chapter on disability
Empowering people in the North-east
Indore based N.G.O. holds match-making meet for visually impaired persons
Blind Pakistani girl to sing paeans of India
Film on the blind, by the blind

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