“I can sense by the sound of the waves that the sea must be vast. But how vast is its vastness?,” asked S Kumari as she built sand castles on R K Beach. Then she buried her hand in the sand and exclaimed, “Sand is so different from the soil. It is coarse and yet such fun!”
Kumari and 42 other girls from the Government residential school for visually challenged girls were on a visit to the beach facilitated by city-based adventure group, Treksome on the occasion of World Tourism Day. For many of the others like Kumari, this was their first experience of the sea and the beach.
Kumari and her friend Rishita holding the hands of a volunteer from Treksome ventured closer to the sea and squealed as the first wave of water hit their feet. “It feels like a spilling of a big bucket of cold water,” said Kumari enjoying the sensation of the sand between her toes as she stood face to the cool breeze.
“I know exactly how Kumari must be feeling,” chipped in 14-year-old Rishita. She remembered a vacation she had spent at a beach with her parents.“I played in the sand and built castles with my younger brother. I remember the tingling sensation when a wave of water touched my feet for the first time. ,” she smile before screaming in happiness as another wave washed over her feet.
“ I am trying to enjoy to the fullest because I have no clue when I will be able to get back to the beach again. I have missed the cool sea breeze for so long, it is so hot in my school,” she said. The girls held on to each other as each wave washed ashore they bent down to feel the cool waters.
There were 22 alert volunteers who kept a close watch and they were as overwhelmed as the girls. “From now on, I will never take my vision for granted,” said Vivek Ravi Kiran, co-founder of Treksome. “I realise how vision can overpower all other senses. Not manynotice of the cool breeze, the coarseness of the sand or the sound of the waves. Today, I have learnt to appreciate that,” he added.
Samved Vegi, co-founder of Treksome said the idea took shape when the group recently organised a blindfold trek. “Only then did we realise how difficult it must be for the visually challenged people. So we decided to conduct this event,” he said.
