Thiruvananthapuram: When we met Baby Girija teacher at the Government School for Visually Handi-capped here on Wednesday, she was in a small dark room in the old wing of the school punching hard on a six-key Braille typewriter or ‘brailler,’ as Ms Sarasamma, a retired government servant, reads out one of the last few stories in Sumangala’s translation of Panchatantra.
“A couple of stories more and we will finish Panchatantra,” the blind teacher said. The first-ever Malayalam Panchatantra in Braille will have eight volumes. But her magnum opus, ‘Aithihyamala, was completed just a month ago. All of Kottararathil Sankunni’s 128 stories - a heady mix of local myths woven around gods, ghosts, humans and animals told in nearly 1,000 pages — have been transcribed into 31 volumes, an unprecedented feat. These volumes have been spiral-bound and neatly arranged inside the only glass cupboard of a bare room on the second floor of the new wing of the school. Her students have begun reading the stories.
“They are mesmerised by the stories of lovable rogues like Kayamkulam Kochunni, and the ghost stories,” said Mr Murale-edharan, a senior colleague of Girija and the brain behind the ‘blind library’ project of the school.
The project is not state-funded, it is funded straight out of the meagre salary of Ms Girija.
For Ms Girija, the tuskers are more fascinating. “I have not seen an elephant, but from Sankunni’s stories I have formed a picture of an elephant,” Ms Girija said.
Transcribing epic-like works into Braille requires superhuman will. A page in a normal book will take up nearly three Braille pages. Her Aithihyamala has over 3,000 pages.
“Girija teacher is exceptionally fast in a brailler and, at her pace, it takes nearly 15 minutes to type one page,” said Mr Muraleedharan.
She already has transcribed into Braille 35 other books, mainly science and history books for children, all of them collected in over 200 volumes.
The pace of her work also depends on volunteers. She took a year to transcribe ‘Aithihyamala.’ “I need people to read to me,” Ms Girija said. She has dependable collaborators like Sarasamma, and also parents of her students. Those ready to volunteer can call her at 9744761458.
