With new gift of sight, 8-year-old Mumbai girl to step out of blind school

Itrsquos difficult to imagine all the things we take for granted like being able to see the words that make up this report as sources of wonder and amazement For eightyearold Chhaya Kalapad however thatrsquos exactly what they areldquoI saw a rainbow for the first time a few months agoGiven the lack of facilities for visually impaired kids in their village in Satara the Kalapads had to enrol Chhaya in the Kamla Mehta School for Blind Girls in Dadar in 2012 where she has been living ever sinceIt is the most beautiful thing And the kittens just look how cute they arerdquo Chhaya exclaimed when this reporter went to meet her yesterday Teachers at her Dadar school said Chhaya has been bounding about looking every bit as joyful as the kittens she admires ever since she has been able to see things Her latest craze clicking selfiesShe counts fingers at her school in DadarBorn in the small village of Washim in Satara district Chhaya was given up for blind and thatrsquos what she remained for all of her time on Earth till November last year when a cataract operation changed her life Thanks to her new gift Chhaya will be able to step out of her blind school in Dadar and attend one for the sighted from next yearWhen midday met her yesterday Chhaya couldnrsquot stop giggling after clicking and looking at selfies she clicked on a cellphoneEarly lifeWhen she was born in 2006 and they realised she couldnrsquot see Chhayarsquos parents Manish and Minakshi Kalapad couldnrsquot do much but accept her vision impairment because Manishrsquos meagre earnings wouldnrsquot allow otherwiseGiven the lack of facilities for visually impaired kids in their village the Kalapads had to enrol Chhaya in the Kamla Mehta School for Blind Girls in Dadar in 2012 even though that meant living without their daughter who was six at the timeChhaya began to be taught in Braille with other blind children and considering her family background the school also took care of her medical and other expensesLet there be lightChhayarsquos world began to change in November last year when Dr Nitin Dedhia an ophthalmologist who runs Ojas Eye Care hospital in Bandra held a free eye checkup camp at the school and realised that Chhaya wasnrsquot blindShe was rushed to a hospital in Dedhiarsquos for further checkups and reports revealed that her vision could be restored through cataract extraction followed by implantation of intraocular lenses ldquoAfter checkups we realised that Chhaya wasnrsquot blind but had a cataract issue We performed the first operation on her right eye on November 25 2013The very next day she started counting her fingers and responded spectacularly to moving objectsrdquo said Dr Dedhia Encouraged Dr Dedhia and his team performed a surgery on her left eye within a month More than a year and several monitoring sessions later Chhaya can now easily recognise shapes colors faces and even count fingers from a 10foot distanceChhayarsquos vision acuity is 2060 as of now normal vision is 2020 which is expected to improve significantly in the coming months ldquoDue to nonmovement of the eye for over six years her vision isnrsquot developed She suffers from the lazy eye syndrome right nowBut she is able to read the first line on the vision chart as of now and her vision will improve significantly over timerdquo added Dr Dedhia who didnrsquot charge a single penny from the family for the entire treatment which costs over Rs 50000 because of their economic conditionNew beginningThough Chhaya can understand shapes and characters she still canrsquot read since she has been learning in Braille Her parents have however decided to shift her to a school for the sighted in their village as soon as they get a goahead from Dr Dedhia and Suparna Ajgaonkar director of the Kamla Mehta School for Blind GirlsldquoWe were worried about her all the time Despite her vision problem we had to keep her away from us since we couldnrsquot afford to treat her here or shift to Mumbai ourselves But now the entire village is thrilled after knowing that she can seeHer final monitoring session is on Saturday today and we are excited to know if we can take her back and enrol her in our local village schoolrdquo said Chhayarsquos father Manish ldquoItrsquos only a matter time before the last report by Dr Dedhia is outIn 2015 Chhaya will be enrolled in a school for the sighted with other kidsrsquo said Ajgaonkar Chhayarsquos mother told midday that over the course of the last year she has been given more than she could have possibly asked for ldquoMy daughter can see she will be staying with me again I couldnrsquot ask for anything elserdquo said Meenakshi