What it’s like to be blind from infancy

Neha Agarwal is a 24-year-old MBA graduate based in Mumbai. She became blind at just four months old.

“My mother had a premature birth, so I was born within seven months instead of the ninth month. For the first four months, I was fine. But I was constantly visiting hospitals, being admitted to the ICU, being kept in the glass case. I even survived a cardiac unrest.”

This brave girl suffered tremendously in her first four months of life, and then lost her eyesight.

“I was crying in my mother’s lap when she noticed a white spot in my eye. They rushed me to Hinduja hospital where they told my mother that I could not see. They sent us to Dr. Natraj at Shankar Netralaya to diagnose the reason behind the loss of my eyesight. The doctor immediately suggested an eye surgery.”

At a tender age of four months, the doctors struggled to diagnose the problem Neha had. They suggested eye surgery by a specialist in the United States.

“Dr. Steves Charles performed the eye surgery on me, however, it was unsuccessful. During the surgery, a lot of oxygen was administered so my retina was completely detached. It was not an external damage that could be fixed, the inside curtain of the retina was detached and that would affect the brain because the optic nerve is located there and that sends signals from the eye to the brain.”

Neha’s parents then returned to India to live.

“Because India didn’t have the same amount of resources for the blind, my mother got back resource material from the US for how to cope with my disability and how I could rehabilitate.”

Neha’s mother fought for Neha to lead an independent life.  She faced several obstacles when she decided to put Neha in a normal school where visually able students studied.

“I was going to take admission in Loretto Convent, but the principal insulted my mother and almost kicked her out, so we had to take admission in Swami Vivekanand Sindhi Society where I received admission on probationary basis. The principal said that she would see my performance and then decide. I didn’t only do well in academics, but also took active part in extra curricular activities.”

Neha represented her school in inter house music competitions where she successfully sang and brought bring back trophies for her school.

Her studies at school were as normal as they could have been, given the circumstances.

“My mother would come to school and take notes and make worksheets for me. I would come home and write it in brail. I had a resource teacher who would convert the brail back into the normal writing system sighted people use. This way I would give my exams also on my own. I had normal notebooks, I used to write in brail on paper and then stick it in the notebook. There were no extra exceptions for me except art and craft.”

Until the fifth grade, Neha was really dependent on her mother for everything, but this changed in sixth grade.

“I had writer’s accommodation where the write would read out the question and would tell her the answer. There were challenges but we overcame those too. The writer had to be of a younger age than me so that she could not help me with the answers. My mom really worked hard to find writers for me.”

Neha wanted to go to an integrated college called St. Xavier’s College.

“They have a platform based on equal opportunities. You study in a classroom, but they have a resource centre equipped with the state of the art technology. You have a screen reader on your desktop, which basically reads out everything that is on your screen. It is compatible with MS word, internet explorer, powerpoint, excel. They had 7-8 computers equipped with this program. Everything was the same, even keyboard and all, only commands are a little different.”

With this technology and several resources and facilities available in India, Neha has completed her education and is now tutoring a sighted student in his twelfth standard.

Neha leads a very normal life today.

“I work out everyday and I have no issue. I have been working out for a while now and I don’t just do cardio, I train with a trainer too, so I have gotten used to my routine. I even shop by myself. I bought these track pants myself. I go to the store and ask them for what I need.”

“Getting a job in India is extremely difficult because people here are very narrow minded. Even after explaining to them how I will be able to work, they are not confident about hiring a blind person like me. I have been working at NGOs but they take advantage of me, make me work overtime and don’t pay me for my work. I was once employed in the HR department of a company, however once I joined the company, all i was made to do all day was make phone calls because they didn’t trust me with using the computer.”

She has been in search for jobs in the HR division, as a vocal performing artist and as a content writer, but has been unable to find one. People in India need to be more open minded and provide opportunities for the disabled and allow them means to grow and succeed in life.

A huge credit of how independent Neha is goes to her mother, who supported her and helped her at every stage of her life. Neha is an inspiration to all the young students today who lose hope when faced with challenges.