It is hard to imagine life of a person who is both deaf and blind. It would be something like groping in total darkness akin to being in a deep, dark well with deadly silence. If God wishes even such a person would have her soul out of that dreadful well. Not only that her soul would fly and feel the beauties of meadows and the sky and even beyond that. 'The story of my life' by Helen Keller is part of the syllabus of class tenth where my younger son is studying. I read the story to explain it to him and his friends but now I am finding it difficult to express it in words.
Helen was born in 1880. She lost her hearing and sight due to some fever when she was merely nineteen months old.
With the aid of her teachers and the books written in Braille, her soul got enlightened as much or even more than those who can hear and see. She with her limited faculties experienced and lived her life to the full. She was the first person of her kind to be a graduate. According to her acquiring education without feeling is like being deaf to the harmonies of nature. The richness of her vocabulary, expression and thoughts is amazing and most likely to dwarf the able bodied reader in his own eyes.
What one may not see with his eyes and hear with his ears she could feel with her hands. At times smell alone guided her ways. Despite her deprivations she had read a vast number of books and imbibed their essence into her soul.
Her enriched soul is such an inspiration that we should never at any time get depressed and discontentful in our life.
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