A Tribute to the Great Braille
You can Win, given any situation provided you strongly feel so. This blog is a tribute to the great and inspirational Louis Braille who revolutionized the lives of many a blind around the world. I had heard about this man earlier too. But, thanks to Google that I got to know about his birthday i.e. today (04Jan06). Read a story about him on some site (can’t remember the URL). This is an abridged version of the bigger story.
Braille’s father used to sell leather goods to make a living and it was on one of those unfortunate days when Braille actually used an awl to poke one of his eyes (at the age of three). It was the early 1800’s and good medication was unheard of. Eventually, he lost his eyesight.
He found it very difficult to cope with the situation for sometime. But, adapted himself to the new way of living pretty quickly. He used to perform well at school but realized the importance of books and the kind of knowledge that he was closed to. In all of France, only Paris had a school especially for blind. So, without any further delay, he made it to that school only to find that the books they use would take a long long time to read too. He was of the view that Nothing’s Impossible (Adidas – Are you hearing this??) and bent upon finding a better way to read books
French army used to make use of a code to send messages across to soldiers then. As the light of a match would make the soldier an easy target for the enemy, they developed a special code which would help the soldiers read the instructions even in the dark (using their hands). Braille got hold of this code and worked on it over a summer to develop a system which makes use of 6 dots to represent an alphabet. This was the birth of a revolution for all those unprivileged people (should I say that). Eventually, he died at the age of 44 somewhere in France (can’t remember the place – sorry folks)!
Please pay your tributes to him too!
Braille’s father used to sell leather goods to make a living and it was on one of those unfortunate days when Braille actually used an awl to poke one of his eyes (at the age of three). It was the early 1800’s and good medication was unheard of. Eventually, he lost his eyesight.
He found it very difficult to cope with the situation for sometime. But, adapted himself to the new way of living pretty quickly. He used to perform well at school but realized the importance of books and the kind of knowledge that he was closed to. In all of France, only Paris had a school especially for blind. So, without any further delay, he made it to that school only to find that the books they use would take a long long time to read too. He was of the view that Nothing’s Impossible (Adidas – Are you hearing this??) and bent upon finding a better way to read books
French army used to make use of a code to send messages across to soldiers then. As the light of a match would make the soldier an easy target for the enemy, they developed a special code which would help the soldiers read the instructions even in the dark (using their hands). Braille got hold of this code and worked on it over a summer to develop a system which makes use of 6 dots to represent an alphabet. This was the birth of a revolution for all those unprivileged people (should I say that). Eventually, he died at the age of 44 somewhere in France (can’t remember the place – sorry folks)!
Please pay your tributes to him too!
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