I need not talk about several politicians all over the world who were active to work for their people and strove to improve their physical, educational, material conditions. Some names that come to mind are Winston Churchill of UK, V. Lenin and Vladimir Putin of Russia, George Washington , Barack Obama, Dwight Eisenhower of US,\u00a0\u00a0Mao se Tung, Xi Jinping of China and several others. Of course Mahatma Gandhi is a well known figure who has contributed immensely in India\u2019s freedom struggle in India, along with stalwarts like Jawaharlal Nehru and Valabbhai\u00a0Patel.<\/p>\n
Many able bodied scientists all over the world have worked in different areas and contributed to scientific temper and improved the conditions of ordinary people by inventing, electric bulbs, telephones and various types of machinery. We applaud the intense researches of Albert Einstein, Enrico Fermi, Madame Curie, the Indian scientist C V Raman and countless others.<\/p>\n
Then a unique self taught mathematics genius S Ramanujam (1887 \u2014 1920) had added laurels to his field and to South India where he was born.<\/p>\n
An Italian physician and educator\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Maria Montessori (1870\u2013 1952)<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0is well known for her philosophy of education. Her approach was to emphasise the role of children in learning \u2014 that children have an innate desire to learn and\u00a0\u00a0teachers should use this desire to help them to teach.<\/p>\n I have referred to contributions in various fields, made by many people world wide who were fit and\u00a0\u00a0in good physical condition to cater to the social norms. Now I write about a few disabled people who have contributed remarkably to humanity and in science and technology.<\/p>\n I talk mainly of Helen Keller and\u00a0Stephen Hawking.<\/p>\n A\u00a0\u00a0person who is well known today \u2014 Helen Keller (1880 \u20141968) was born in Alabama, USA and due to some fever she became blind and deaf as a child. She learned to speak American Sign Language despite her blindness. She taught other blind people to read a language known as Braille. In 1915 she started an organisation \u2014\u00a0\u00a0Helen Keller International,<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0devoted to teaching other blind or deaf persons to live well, to read and write Braille and to communicate with other people with disabilities.<\/p>\n She could identify some objects by touching them. Gradually she was able to distinguish objects by her touch. As the first blind and deaf person she even earned\u00a0\u00a0a graduate degree in 1904 from\u00a0\u00a0Radcliffe College and was able to visit many countries promoting help for blind and deaf people. A truly inspiring person.<\/p>\n She was looked after throughout her life by a devoted woman named Anne Sullivan\u00a0\u00a0who helped her to communicate with others .<\/p>\n Inspired by Helen Keller and her devotion, some Organisations and Universities are working for the welfare and education of blind people. One is the\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Central Institute of Education<\/em>\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0in University of Delhi which admits several blind students for different courses. They also teach Braille to these students.<\/p>\n A well known world renowned scientist is Stephan Hawking (1942\u2013 2018) who worked in Cambridge University England and is considered by scientists that his stature is that of another Cambridge scientist Isaac Newton (1643 \u2014 1727). Stephen Hawking has written a book called \u2018A Brief History of Time\u2019 that talks of many aspects of physics including black holes. According to him, space is not empty, black holes are not black. They attract and absorb light passing nearby, but don\u2019t allow it to escape.<\/p>\n Stephen was born normal bodied. But at the age of 21, he was diagnosed with a neuronal disease that resulted in him being confined to a wheelchair for his remaining life. However, this did not affect his genius in working on different aspects of physics \u2014 he was known as another Albert Einstein for his brilliance.<\/p>\n In a rare interview he talked about his physical condition \u2014\u00a0\u00a0\u2018I am happier now than earlier before I developed this condition. My disability allows me to work in theoretical physics \u2014 it is not a serious handicap for me.\u2019 A British author Kitty Ferguson has written a famous book on his Life and Work \u2014\u00a0Stephen Hawking \u2014 Quest for a Theory of Everything<\/em>,<\/strong>\u00a0which was first published in 1992 and has sold millions of copies worldwide.<\/p>\n There are some Indian people with disabilities:\u00a0\u00a0Jyoti Amge<\/em>\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0who suffered from\u00a0dwarfism.<\/p>\n Another Indian was born only with one arm. Another young woman who lost one of her arms through an accident but survived to do well in society.<\/p>\n Similarly some people who suffered from polio have been successful in life.<\/p>\n A few organisations\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0in India\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0are advancing the cause of people with disabilities.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Baba Saheb Apte Centre\u00a0 \u00a0<\/em>in Delhi is supporting children of disabled persons in various ways \u2014 providing nutritious food to children, educating them, providing school bags , stationery etc. The Centre trains and helps disabled people with the belief that they can contribute to the welfare of society.<\/p>\n Ultimately, they strongly believe in the training of such people. They also foster a healthy attitude among society to not to look down upon people with disabilities but to contribute towards their welfare and advancement in various manners as normal people. We need to imbibe this attitude.<\/p>\n ______________________________________________<\/p>\n Stephen Hawking was born normal bodied. But at the age of 21, he was diagnosed with a neuronal disease that resulted in him being confined to a wheelchair for his remaining life. However, this did not affect his genius in working on different aspects of physics \u2014 he was known as another Albert Einstein for his brilliance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":215437,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[323],"class_list":["post-215436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-transcend-members","tag-karma"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215436\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Stephen-Hawking-scaled.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a> Dr Ravi P Bhatia is a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment<\/a>, an<\/em> educationist, Gandhian scholar and peace researcher. Retired professor, Delhi University. His new book, <\/em>A Garland of Ideas\u2014Gandhian, Religious, Educational, Environmental was published recently in Delhi.<\/em> ravipbhatia@gmail.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"