Kendrapara: Two visually impaired siblings have become models for blind children.
The siblings, Bhisma Kumar Das, 13, and his brother Umakanta Das, 9, are the sons of Prasant Kumar Das, a resident of Pailo village, and are talented in singing, tabla and harmonium.
Prasant Kumar Das, the kids’ father said, “Both my sons were born blind. I borrowed money and took Bhisma to an eye hospital in Cuttack. Many doctors treated my son, but there was no improvement. Later, Umakanta was also born blind.” Prasant, an autorickshaw driver, had to struggle to feed his family.
Bhisma was studying in Class VII and Umakanta in Class IV at the Pailo-based Mahakali Vidyapitha. They were not getting proper education as the school was meant for normal kids. They could not learn Braille as there was no Braille teacher there.
“Earlier, Bhisma was in a Kendrapara blind school, but he failed to learn due to lack of guidance. So, I took my son from there,” said Manjulata Das, the kids’ mother.
“Bhisma showed an interest in tabla and Umakanta in singing and harmonium. So I arranged two teachers for them hoping that they can make it a career. Bhisma has been learning tabla since five from tablist Akhaya Kumar Prusty and Umakanta in singing and harmonium from Adikanda Sahu. Their teachers are teaching them free seeing their talent,” said the kids’ father.
Akhaya Kumar Prusty, the tablist–cum-harmonium player, said it was difficult to teach tabla and harmonium to the blind brothers. But, slowly the brothers learnt the tricks. He said that he is proud of the blind siblings.
Meanwhile, the brothers started participating in cultural programmes and devotional song competitions and bagged several awards and trophies. Umakanta generally sings and plays harmonium, while Bhisma plays tabla. The duo has participated in reality shows like Saregamapa on Sarthak TV, Gaon Akhada on Taranga TV, and was auditioned for Pratham Swara Season-2. Recently, they participated in the district-level Suravi programme.
But, the district administration has failed to help them. If the administration had helped the children they would have launched a cultural troupe and could have made a living, the father said.
Bhisma said, “My hero is tablist Zakir Hussain and my brother’s ideal is music composer Rabindra Jain.”
“We want to launch our troupe and perform all over the state. But we have no money for musical instruments,” said Umakanta.
District culture officer Dillip Nayak said he would write to the department to sanction money for them. PNN
