Asit Ranjan
Bandyopadhyay. DOB 24 November 1933. Residing at Shyamkhola, Jagaddal, PO
Sonarpur, South 24 Parganas
In 1994 I
had an opportunity to meet Asitda. At that time volunteers of SVH, mainly
sighted Braille transcribers faced serious problems in operating Taj Braillers.
Perkins Standard Brailler at that time was an absorbitantly high priced product,
something we, the volunteers with very modest means could not even imagine to
possess.
Late Raja
Paul, a very skilled self-made “Do-it-yourself” technician and an extremely reliable escort and resource
person in our thethen annual mountaineering programs, with the Himalayan
Mountaineering Institute (HMI), Darjeeling, introduced us in 1994, to Asitda, a
highly-skilled photographer & technician, a man of strong personality and
self-confidence, a hard disciplinarian and an ardent Nature-lover, whose garden
was a heaven for bird-watchers. Asitda at that time was busy working in his
studio at Ekdalia Road and Raja took our defective Braillers there for repair.
Strangely at that time Asitda had no problem relating to eye-sight and would
walk long distances in Kolkata for his assignments.
We would
then hear from Raja various achievements of Asitda as a renowned professional
photographer till oneday, when it surfaced that Asitda is suffering from vision
problem, he was diagnosed with macular degeneration. Asitda himself would
handle all his problems and would innovate various tools within his home to
facilitate his independent movement in and around.
In 2001
Asitda, at the age of 68 years, decided to learn Braille and with great
dedication and steadfast perseverance picked up English Braille Grade 2,
frequently interacting with us the advantages and inconveniences faced by an
aged Braille learner and how best that inconvenience can be converted into one’s
advantage. He would borrow English Braille books, gifted to us from UK &
USA, read them avidly and return them carefully. Ultimately Asitda got enrolled
himself with the Hadley School for the Blind, USA for a course in English
Braille and completed it.
His most
invaluable contribution is tutoring Meena Mondol, an adult Blind rural woman,
identified from an area closer to Asitda’s house. Meena came to SVH in 1992-93
and had some education from Louis Braille Memorial School for the Sightless,
Uttarapara, Hooghly & one & a half-year’s vocational training from
Calcutta Blind School, Behala. She then received a sewing machine from the Dept
of Social Welfare, Government of West Bengal, as a tool to make herself
self-reliant. By this time on our request Asitda and Boudi, his wife, Manju
Bandyopadhyay extended a warm hand of support to Meena, grooming her, finetuning
her Braille skill etc and other daily living tips. Professor Jefferey J Kripal,
presently Newton Razor Professor at Rice University, USA, would send some funds
which enabled us to support Meena for her bare necessities. By the way Meena’s widow
mother supported the two by selling vegetable in a local market. In course of
time Meena grew extremely smart & self-confident in her appearance, dress,
association with strangers, adjusting with family problems and other challenges.
Last Tuesday
the 19th of July 2016 I went to pay a visit to Asitda &
Manjuboudi. They were very eager to gift us some ripe jackfruits from their own
tree, which they give us every year for our beneficiaries & volunteers to taste.
Asitda and Boudi both looked very frail. Their son Ananda and daughter-in-law
Najma take very good care of them. Boudi is very active too in her daily home
management.
Today the 22nd
July, I have sent our IT assistant Sukla and digital book editor Debasish to
fix an EVD machine in Asitda’s proximity so that he can listen to our
recordists’ unedited recording and tell us the relevant points.
