After a long hiatus when I reached that city that was the center of my juvenile ventures, I was struck by the difference in the population that thronged the streets. In my blooms, this was a hotbed of educational exchange between two nations and the principal routes were the refuges of students, especially overseas scholars, and in the cold December, some were seen tasting the coal prepared food articles and maize and talking of various things. Now the chilly weather is still there and it was also December and I took an early stroll to survey my beloved spots, and there were vacationists, and sightseeing bands and the local people of various social impressions and the mezzanines are greeting and people of all ages are seen frequenting them. The most memorable bookstall of that epoch is still in continuance but in an abutting plaza having the very old signature. This was my excursion to a family of relatives and I chanced to be in the city for many days in the downtown lanes and the bus stations at a particular time, after eleven o’clock in the day, after my everyday routines. The ways are however identical, the same intersections, crossroads, though some of the sanitation of earlier seasons has waned and maybe the stores and the owner might have changed. There are a few supplementary bridges and a couple of huge resorts in the chief area. But generally, the place was the same as was in my youth. This particular city is striking in my memories because once I sojourned here for six months in preparation for a national test. And later I frequented it because of the aesthetic shows including dances and theatre. The auditorium is still there, with the same name of an outstanding lyricist.
While waiting at the bus terminal, I was struck by a blind man who almost labored with his staff to relocate. and out of curiosity or possibly a little solicitude, asked him if he needed some aid and he appealed me to get him to a specific section of the bus depot. As the stands were so packed and at each second a new bus would come from either region and as even for a character with two eyes, it was threatening to move without vigilance, I helped him to that particular spot. After a few chat, we withdrew. Again on an ensuing day, I halted by noon to that sector and was intrigued by another visually challenged gentleman who was also coping to attain his way in the crowd and it was known this time that these friends were visiting a free academy run by a charity organization to learn Braille and other instructional materials in that language. In the following days, I met several such gentlefolk, and in the parleys that occurred, came to learn that some are sightless from the very parturition and were mostly young people in the twenties or beginning thirties and sometimes they moved in groups and sometimes alone. I aspired to help additionally by money when with a youthful brother on a different day to see him off. But I discerned that my purse was thin that day and felt pretty grieved that I could not support him enough. There were many souls, especially young pupils of the nearby universities, who were aiding them to find their omnibuses, as this was the principal bus terminus, and had access to all parts of the country. Ultimately, anticipating for my own limousine, I mused over how providential I am to have two eyes which in many moments, I have misused and also felt very beholden towards existence. Besides, I imagined, if my office could be more propitious in helping them in a better way in case I got a million dollars. Quickly the revelation surfaces that I will be performing the same tasks then also, only in a sounder way as far as money is concerned. Perhaps I could help them see this world by some major surgeries. Or get my work disseminated in Braille. But this element is very hazy, and while speaking to a friend later, he warned me that there is another class of blindness, an inner amblyopia, which is crucial and engenders vices, and the outgrowths of it are severe.
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P.S.–
Braille is derived from the Latin alphabet, albeit indirectly. In Braille’s original system, the dot patterns were assigned to letters according to their position within the alphabetic order of the French alphabet, with accented letters and w sorted at the end.
The first ten letters of the alphabet, a–j, use the upper four dot positions: ⠁⠃⠉⠙⠑⠋⠛⠓⠊⠚ (black dots in the table below). These stand for the ten digits 1–9 and 0 in a system parallel to Hebrew gematria and Greek isopsephy. (Though the dots are assigned in no obvious order, the cells with the fewest dots are assigned to the first three letters (and lowest digits), abc = 123 (⠁⠃⠉), and to the three vowels in this part of the alphabet, aei (⠁⠑⠊), whereas the even digits, 4, 6, 8, 0 (⠙⠋⠓⠚), are corners/right angles.)
The next ten letters, k–t, are identical to a–j, respectively, apart from the addition of a dot at position 3 (red dots in the table): ⠅⠇]⠍⠝⠕⠏⠟⠗⠎⠞:
— [Source- Wikipedia]
SW 