Visually impaired teacher beats odds, apreads knowledge using Braille books

Guwahati: In a heart-warming tale of triumph over adversity, Ranjit Bora, an assistant teacher from a govt school in Sivasagar district has emerged as a beacon of inspiration for his students and the community at large. Despite being blind, Bora continues to educate and motivate his students with unwavering dedication using Braille books to deliver engaging lessons.
Born in a peasants' family, Bora's journey from a village in Assam's Nagaon district to becoming an inspiration for many is a testament to an indomitable human spirit to overcome obstacles and deliver knowledge to the society.
Although Bora had his eyesight at birth, he lost his eyesight to an undetected ailment at the tender age of four.
Since he got employed as a teacher in 2007, Bora had overcome numerous hurdles to impart lessons to his students. However, he hardly considers those as obstacles. "As a visually-impaired teacher, it is quite a challenging task for me to teach the students. Whenever I give them something to write, I can only spell the words to them but I cannot check if they have written it written correctly. But over the years, I have devised many methods to check for anomalies like missing word or symbol while dictating to them," Bora said.
Apart from facing difficulties while imparting lessons to sighted students, Bora said the dearth of Braille books has been a greater concern in the state. "Assam has only one printing press in Guwahati that publish Braille books and due to insufficient manpower and other issues, visually impaired people do not get the books on time. To overcome that, I let visually-abled people read the lessons and then convert it into Braille so that I can impart lessons to the students without any difficulties," Bora added.
Lauding the teacher's efforts, Sivasagar district school inspector Debajit Gogoi told TOI, "His dedication to the noble work of teaching is really commendable. Apart from teaching regular subjects, Bora, a trained tabla player and flutist, also imparts music lessons to the students."
Gogoi says Bora can be an inspiration not just for visually-impaired individuals, but for others as well. "Despite lacking eyesight, from handling his daily chores to coming to the school, he does it all alone without seeking help from anyone. This truly shows his indomitable spirit," Gogoi added.
The teacher's inspiring journey also got lauded by chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. Praising Bora, the CM on Saturday on the occasion of World Braille Day wrote on his social media account, "On #WorldBrailleDay, sharing the inspirational story of assistant teacher Shri Ranjit Bora. Despite being blind, he uses a Braille book to teach his students and has never let adversaries define him. Our govt. is actively supporting Shri Bora and many like him to live a life of dignity."