I Believe - Chandana

Chandana Banik is a member of YRC
Natun Diganto (2010), Change Maker, Gender
Volunteer (2011), Coordinator - Music
Workshops for children (2012)

"I believe that all of us can do everything if only we try"
Chandana

My name is Chandana Banik. I have been blind since childhood. I believe that all of us can do everything if only we try. I live in Naihati. As a kid I used to study in Naihati Blind School, I did not have this kind of faith in me then. But when I got admitted in class III in Behala Calcutta Blind School, the seed of this belief started growing in me.

Many of you may ask, “She can’t see, then how was she able to get an education?” I have educated myself using Braille. We align paper straight into a grid-like tool called ‘interpoint’, and by making holes in that paper using a stylus, we write in Braille. The alphabets are formed by the raised marks made on the paper as a result of perforating it. We recognize these alphabets as soon as we touch them with our fingers. At first we practice the technique by perforationg the paper and making six dots. Then we arrange these six dots in different ways and are able to write anything we want – A, B, C or the Bangla O, Aa, Ko, Kho.

I Believe - Piyali

Piyali Paul is a member of YRC Drishtikon (2008)
Change Maker, Youth Trainer (2011)
and Peer Counsellor (2012)
more on facebook 

"I believe that women should get equal rights with men in society"
Piyali

When I think of the incidents of my life, I feel that I am a girl, I too am a human being from whom her childhood has been snatched away.
I never got the material things and the space a child needs when she is growing up, as from as long as I can remember, I had to manage the household and bring up my baby brother. I had to fetch water from a long way away. People used to say, “Dragging water buckets like these, she will never grow tall!” Some said, “Such suffering!” while some others said with a slight smile, “Don’t worry, she is used to it”.

When it was evening, I wanted so much to play, but what to do – my brother would be in my lap, nothing doing. The friction of carrying him around all day caused a skin inflammation on my side; those marks are still there.

I Believe - Jagannath

Jagannath Samanta is a member YRC
 GSRI (2008), Youth Trainer (2010),
Co-ordinator - Empowerment
through Technology Workshops (2012)

"I believe in Love"

Jagannath

I believe that love can be of many kinds, and all kinds of love have their own value.
Earlier I used to think that love could be of only one kind, focussed on one person as the object of love. I didn’t even think there could be love of any other kind. And one day when this person whom I loved moved away, I began to think that nothing called love even exists, and it has no value. I thought ‘love’ was like a mirage in the desert of life. Life at that time became like a world ravaged by the ferocious kalboisakhi storm. I used to roam about all day, or sit at the base of the coconut tree beside the little water body by my home. Just at this time, love entered my life in a different form, and made me look at many old friends in a new light.

The realization that love can be of many kinds came from my parents. Many small incidents started happening in my life; maybe these had happened earlier as well but had never been valued

I Believe - Rishi

Rishi Gupta is a member of YRC Yuva
Prochestha (2009). Participant in Empowerment
through Technology Workshops (2012)

"I Believe in my Mother"

Rishi

In my life, first and foremost, I believe in my mother.
I began to believe in her from when I was 7-8 years old. I think that today I am able to accept the happy flow of life because of my anchoring belief in my mother. I know that you want to know why I believe so much in my mother. There’s a reason behind this.

In my childhood, when my father died, my maternal grandfather brought us from Liluah, where we then lived, to his house in Behala Pallysree. From that time onwards, my maternal grandparents used to take care of us while my mother used to work as a domestic help to support our education. From childhood, I was always a very reckless kind. I would do whatever our grandmother forbade us to do.