17, Feb 2016

Feb 17 2016 : The Times of India (Mumbai)
Ishita Bhatia
Meerut
Ask seven-year-old Rida Zehra if she knows the Gita, and the visually-challenged girl folds her hands and starts reciting the book -which she knows by heart -within seconds.

Living at a residential blind school in Meerut since three years, Zehra has never seen the book as she was born with 80% blindness. In fact, she has not even read it in Braille. Her teacher at the school helped her memorise the whole text by reading it out to her.

It doesn’t matter to Zehra which God she worships, as she says she will never be able to see himher. “ I like praying to God, whether it is by reading the Gita or the Quran,“ says the class 3 girl who studies at the Brij Mohan School for the blind in Meerut. Zehra’s parents and siblings live in Lohia Nagar, where she goes during her summer break and during festivals.

She was admitted to the blind school by her father when she was three. Her principal, Praveen Sharma, while detailing the girl’s tryst with the Gita, says, “It was in the beginning of 2015 that I got to know about a Gita competition for kids in the city. That is when I thought why not let our kids participate in the competition.“ Sharma proudly says that Zehra was a quick learner. “First, I learnt how to recite the Gita with the help of various pandits. Once I learnt the right way to read it, I started teaching it to the kids of my school and Zehra was one of the quick learners. I don’t have its copy in Braille, so I read it out to her and now she knows it ver batim.“