As he stands in front of his students and dictates a lesson, the fact that he suffers from complete blindness barely crosses their mind. For them, he is just another teacher. In fact, he is a favourite.
Suresh Patted, a 28-year-old visually impaired man, was appointed as lecturer at a government degree college in Terdal town of Bagalkot district a month ago.
Mr. Patted, blind by birth, is a native of Dhavaleshwar village of Mudhol taluk, where he still lives with his agrarian parent. His is a story of securing a dream after treading a path of hardship and many a twist and turn.
“For a blind [person], for sure life is not easy. But a strong will can help us clear the hurdles,” he said.
Having completed a major part of his education in Belagavi district, Mr. Patted did his M.A. in Political Science from Rani Channamma University and also cleared KSET (Karnataka State Eligibility Test) before being recruited as a lecturer.
He completed his education with the help of the Braille script, which he learnt at school. Mr. Patted said audio recordings of all the subjects played a vital role in his test preparations. “Even today, I use the same method to teach. I spend around two hours listening to the subject before delivering a lecture.”
According to Mr. Patted, an NGO named Mitra Jyoti supplies audio recordings on all subjects to visually impaired persons.
Thanking his parents and friends for their help every step of the way, he said that without the support of society, people like him would find it extremely hard to get ahead in life.
While he is elated to serve in the college, his pupils and colleagues too are happy to have such distinguished lecturer in their college. “All teachers are good here, but Patted sir is different. We feel happy and proud to be his students. His teaching method is simple as it gives us adequate time to take down notes,” said Bhagyashree, a final-year B.A. student. N.V. Aski, principal of the college, said Mr. Patted is a living example for differently abled people.
Meanwhile, the man himself is saddened by the fact that many blind persons are forced to beg on the streets. He said people with visual impairments should not beat themselves up and treat their disability as a curse, but instead use it as an advantage to get ahead in the life by making use of the many benefits being offered to them by the government.