Eyes

Eyes, being the most vital and the most developed of our sense organs, not just enable us to see things around us - they give us confidence while interacting with people; they sharpen other senses when they fear danger. Eyes are the honest part of our body expressing our feelings and emotions. They open up bright when we are enthusiastic or excited or surprised, shed tears when we feel sad (of course tears flow when when peeling onions too). This has been used in Bollywood - the hero cries "mere ankhon me dekhe bolo ki tum mujhse pyar nahi karthe ho" and the heroine always cannot deny it, and I fail to understand why :(.

Eyes make our faces brighter no matter how ugly we are! Having a pair of beautiful eyes is a matter of pride - meenAkshi, sarasijAkshA, nalinAkshi, etc., are few popular Indian names.

Eyes paint our world with colors. They work continuously for us without quetching. But when they do, we feel the heat and we realize how important they are to us. Just close your eyes and try to move around. Although our brains would have recorded the whole picture of the room we are in, we sure will stumble when we move with our eyes closed. We simply can't keep our eyes closed and do any work when we are in our consciousness for more than 10 minutes. Imagine those who are not blessed with the opportunity of sight - they would have never seen the light and the beautiful world. No wonder it is called the 'gift of sight'.

Our society has both able-bodied people, like us, and those who are deprived of this gift. Of course amongst those differently-abled citizens, we do have a few Helen Kellers who say,

We differ, blind and seeing, one from another, not in our senses, but in the use we make of them, in the imagination and courage with which we seek wisdom beyond the senses.

But how many do we have? Isn't it our responsibility as fellow citizens to help them come up in their lives? By helping them, we can have our one selfish motive (not really) to be achieved - move higher up in the global economy since even the disabled don't laze around.

Of course there are many people in this heavily populated country who are deprived of many things. One might ask, how can we help all those people? I believe strongly in this quote.

I can not do everything, but I can do something. I must not fail to do the something that I can do.

I felt that I should help these people but I didn't know how. Then I came across "Deepa Academy for the differently-abled". It is a residential school for these people, most of them are girls, who are poor. It is run by a group of people who are committed to helping them. It provides most of the facilities and teaches them how to face the world. I thought, "Isn't it better to help these kids, who are robbed of this gift, to shape their careers?". I have been a member of this school since then. You can visit http://www.esnips.com/web/DeepaAcademy to know more about the activities of the school in 2006-07.

Unfortunately the school management isn't rich to help all these students without external funds. Being just an year old organization, it depends on these funds to maintain and provide facilities to these children. You can make a difference by helping these children. If you wish to help these kids, please contact me or the school directly at deepa.academy@gmail.com.

While you do that, remember to exercise your eyes regularly. Do not neglect even the slightest of the problems with your eyes. Those are the warnings and if you understand them they won't turn into errors! Get your eyes checked regularly with an ophthalmologist. Let your eyes enjoy the colors of the world during your lifetime and beyond...