George Abraham's Score Foundation helps visually impaired people lead normal lives

u00a0When he was 13 George Abrahamrsquos mother once told him lsquoOne day I want to write your storyrsquo The high school student simply laughed But four decades later Abraham says he realises what his mother was trying to say ldquoShe wanted me to beat the odds and achieve things that my fellow countrymen would be proud ofrdquo he says as we discuss his almost fairytale journey so far Why fairytale George Abraham believes that if you have the will you can move mountains You see Abraham was just 10 months old in 1959 when meningitis permanently damaged his vision His parents who lived in London at the time soon moved back to India with their son and decided he would have the same education as everyone else Abraham studied at La Marteniere Lucknow graduated in Maths from St Stephens in Delhi and went on to do a Masters in Operations Strategy ldquoMy parents read out my textbooks to me They helped me formulate answers And then I learnt to do it on my own too I was lucky to be born to my parentsrdquo he jokes While his academic journey alone would have made him a poster boy for the visually impaired the world over it wouldnrsquot qualify as a fairytale But Abraham was just getting startedu00a0It wouldnrsquot be an understatement to say that in the past 25 years Abraham has done a fair bit The members of the Score Foundation want governments to look at visually impaired people as a potential human resource He organised the first national cricket competition for the blind in 1990 and then founded and championed the first ever World Cup for visually impaired cricketers in 1998 ldquoFour years later my wife Rupa and I founded the Score Foundation and then the Eyeway project which today employs counsels and helps thousands of visually impaired people including those who are slowly going blind not just lead a regular life but also succeed on a professional and social levelrdquo he adds The success stories of some of the people his foundation has helped promise to give goose pimples to even a rhinou00a0Side by side he has started a weekly radio programme Yeh Hai Roshni Ka Karwan where visually impaired people who have overcome the odds to succeed in life tell their stories and the Eyeway Talking Book service SP Singh was counselled and guided by the Score Foundation And now even as we speak he tells us about his next project in 2013 a television serial to be aired on the national network which will tell the stories of blind people from across cities and social strata who have battled battles at home in society and at work to succeed in life Fairytale stuff You bet But through all this the affable 55yearold has remained focused his feet firmly rooted to the ground ldquoYou know my first ever interview to a newspaper appeared in MiD DAY in 1989rdquo he laughs when we start our chat But what made him start a foundation for the blind after having worked his way up the ladder of one of Indiarsquos top ad firms ldquoI think I have some of my motherrsquos crazy optimism and my fatherrsquos risk appetite My mom was an out and out optimist who believed that if need be the sun could rise in the west You need to believe that you can do itrdquo he explains Still Abraham says he was happy with his job till he and his wife Rupa visited a school for the blind in Mumbai ldquoIt was a lifechanging experience I was shocked to see how they coped with life and how their mindset was It was revealing I knew then how lucky I was to have such progressive parents My wife wanted to translate books into Braille to help the kids But then we decided to do something more holisticrdquo he recalls It was at this time that the Abrahams lost their justborn child ldquoWe wanted to start a new innings so to say I was 30 and she was 29 so we had age on our siderdquo he says So he quit advertising and started freelancing while his landscapeartist wife took up a job But things moved slowly Till in 1990 a chance visit to Dehradun opened his eyes ldquoI visited Dehradunrsquos National Institute for the Visually Handicapped and came across blind guys playing cricket in a field They used balls that rattled and bowled underarm I was amazedrdquo he says For a selfproclaimed cricket fanatic who grew up dreaming of becoming a fast bowler like Dennis Lillee this opened a new window ldquoMy dream which lay shattered when I realised I would never make a cricket team came back We soon organised the first national cricket tournament for the blind I wrote to 200 schools and 20 confirmed their participation I roped in Sunil Gavaskar and Kapil Dev as patrons and found a sponsor when Tata Steel then helmed by Rusi Modi who agreed to shell out Rs 15 lakh The then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi agreed to give away the prizes It was just awesomerdquo he recalls It was during the run up to the cup that Abraham says he discovered that the ldquoreal problem was not the blindness but the mindset of the other people and the blind people themselves to the disability Everyone including the blind believed they just couldnrsquot lead normal lives I wanted to change thatrdquo hesays So four years after organising the first ever World Cup for the blind in 1998 it is now a regular in the ICC calendar the Abrahams set up the Score Foundation and Eyeway ldquoIn 2005 we launched a radio programme called Yeh Hai Roshni Ka Karwan The show spoke to people who had succeeded in life despite blindness We were flooded with callsrdquo he saysu00a0So in 2006 Score opened a live helpdesk to counsel and help people from across India ldquoOur radio programme spoke about or to blind people who were now working in banks in the IT industry in travel companies and even as a sarpanch in Anand district People called told us their stories and wanted advice So we gave them ideasrdquo he trails off Soon they also began an advocacy cell to make blind people aware of their legal rights ldquoFor instance many do not know of 1995 Persons With Disability Act where Section 47 states that a public sector worker cannot be dismissed on the basis of any disabilityrdquo he explains When banks hesitated to open accounts for the blind Score stepped in ldquoI lobbied with the government too Before the last five year plan I was invited to speak to the commission members I told them that the government of India looks at working with the blind as a charitable act which is why it is low priority I gave them the examples of Ashish Goel who holds a senior position in Morgan Stanley in London and Sanjay Dang who runs his hugely profitable travel company Le Travel World Both are blind but top CEOs I told them that these are people who contribute to the Indian economy and so they are not to be treated as a liability but a potential human resourcerdquou00a0Abraham says that is precisely what Eyeway is trying to do help people make the transition from liability to resource and charity to investment ldquoIf we succeed we wonrsquot need to have this conversation after 10 yearsrdquo he laughs But why are we writing about Abraham now Because he is about to do something else that will blow your mind a television serial on DD which will tell the stories of real people who have battled blindness and won in life ldquoWe believe the nation needs to be talked to and need a bigger platform which is why the TV serial It will go on air soon It will hopefully make people think about possibilities instead of impossibilities and look for solutions instead of problems The serial is called Nazar Ya Nazaryardquo he reveals Also on the anvil is another revolutionary move ldquoEyeway feels the need to reach put to people in the language they speak We get calls in many languages which my staff are unable to comprehend So we will identify existing organisations across states who subscribe to our way of thinking and use Eyeway as a knowledge network in India which researches and gathers information disseminates it for people and does advocacyrdquo he signs off Jack and the Beanstalk sounds dull after this Motivated to move ahead S P Singh lives in Varanasi He was in his early 30s and was a school teacher when he began losing his vision He was already married and had two small kids The cause for vision loss was Retinitis Pigmentoza He had to quit his job and was quite depressed A friend told him about the Score Foundationrsquos radio programme Yeh Hai Roshni Ka Karwan He heard the programme and called up the Score Eyeway helpdesk He was counselled motivated and guided about what he should do to get back to work With mobility training and computer training he returned to his job and now is aspiring to move ahead in his career Beating blindness A few years ago Abraham received a call from a man who lived in Bhopal He was in his late 20s and was losing his vision at an alarming speed He had quit his job and returned to his parents resigned to a life of darkness ldquoHe had heard our radio show and wanted to know what he could do We convinced him that he could take on homebased assignments to begin with so that he felt useful But after a few months he called back to say while he was earning money his social life was in doldrums While his friends went out and partied he sat at home His parents refused to let him out alone lest a car run him over We spoke to them but they refused saying they didnrsquot want to lose their son to a pothole a ditch or a rash driver Luckily a few weeks later we did a radio show with a blind man who had overcome similar odds and was now working in a senior position in a bank The young man was excited He wanted us to talk to his parents again This time they agreed to let him venture out close by with a cane in hand provided they followed him at a distance This continued for a while When both the young man and his parents had gained enough confidence we convinced him to apply for a job He landed a really cool job at TCS and first moved to Kolkata and is now based in Bangalore Recently we spoke again and he said now he hopes to fall in love soon and get married It is stories like these that I live forrdquo says Abraham