Through their celebration of traditional Odia festival Raja, students of a residential school for the visually-impaired in Berhampur tried to prove that all aspects of festivity can be enjoyed even without vision.
Like other girls throughout the State, these girls too have started celebrating this three-day-long agrarian festival from Wednesday, the Pahili Raja. On Wednesday, the girls of this school came to the Biju Patnaik Park in the city. The Berhampur Development Authority (BDA), which manages this park, had allowed the students to celebrate Raja in the park from morning till noon, when it remains closed for other visitors.
The girls enjoyed swings in the park while singing traditional songs related to the festival. It was a picnic for these girls as they also had a feast of traditional Odia delicacies related to Raja like poda pitha , arisa , chandrakanti , dahi bara , kakara etc inside the park. On Tuesday, they had a feast of chakuli pitha at their school campus as part of Pahili Raja celebration.
Like others, these visually-impaired children also wore new dresses, new bangles and flashy ornaments, had put on mehndi and tried to make themselves beautiful.
Tanmayi Badatya, a visually-impaired teacher of the school, said despite their lack of vision, they are able to sense the beauty and design of mehndi applied on their hands and feet as well as the make up and ornaments.
The children touched to feel the beauty of the new dresses and ornaments and chose what attracted them, she added. She said, it seems the visually-impaired have some inner vision through which they can sense many things. Most students of this school have remained in the hostel even during this vacation time for mass enjoyment of Raja.
Ranu Behera and Minati Das, two Class X students of this school from Pandiajholi and Baulajholi villages of Ganjam district, said although Raja is being celebrated in same manner at their home and school, they feel more at home and happy with their school mates.
V. Laxmi, a former student of the school and now studying in +3 degree course, phoned her school teachers to say that she was missing the Raja festivities with her school mates.
Bhabani Shankar Padhi, secretary of Odisha Service Centre for the Blind (OSCB) that manages this residential school, said they had started celebrating Raja eight years back to increase the confidence among the students. “We hope the people will realise that physical lacking cannot restrain the joy of anyone so the physically impaired should never be left out during any festive occasion,” Mr Padhi said.