Blind village girl who went places

You'd think, if you didn't know her, that she wore the dark glasses merely as a protection against the glare of the March sun. She alighted from the 3-wheeler and smilingly stepped forward towards me with such aplomb that I had to remind myself that this lady I was meeting for the first time, was totally blind.

The evidence for that lay in her taking the hand that was outstretched to help her up the two broad steps to my verandah. Once she felt the chair behind her, she sat down confidently and turned towards me with the smile that came easily to her lips. This was Kamala Xavier (nee Aponsu), neatly and attractively attired in a pretty lemon-coloured saree worn in the Kandyan style and speaking perfect English.

"I am sorry if I am late - I have come from my home in Katuneriya - we left at 8 o'clock, but the traffic was heavy." I assured her she was early, rather than late for our appointment. "Now please tell me about yourself," I said. "Where shall I begin?" I asked her whether she had been blind from birth. "No, according to my parents, it happened when I was 2 ½ years old."

The sad tale that her mother had told her was that Kamala's blindness had resulted from what might be termed a "medical misadventure" on the part of a well-meaning Veda-mahataya. "I don't remember any of this, but my parents said that I was taken later to a Viennese eye-specialist who had been very angry after he examined my eyes and had shouted, "What did you put into this child's eyes?" He had flung back the envelope containing his fee and said he couldn't do anything for her because both optic nerves had been destroyed. (Kamala said that neither of her parents understood English, so there had been a Sinhala-speaking interpreter present).

"My parents were poor, simple, uneducated people and there were nine of us children, of whom I was the sixth. When I was about five years old, a kindly Ralahamy in our village - we lived in Moragoda in the Gampaha District - had suggested that my mother should take me to the parish priest and ask his advice. My father was a devout Buddhist, while my mother was a Roman Catholic. The priest had told my mother about a School for the Deaf & Blind in Ragama, run by Belgian nuns, and had given her a letter to the Mother-Superior there. So I was admitted there and I learnt English. The nuns were particular about everything - how we spoke, how we carried ourselves, how we sat down, etc. It was a good all-round training we received.

"Then, when Sinhala became the medium of instruction for Sinhala children, they sent me daily to the local village school. I liked to study. Perhaps because of that, the nuns decided to transfer me to the School for the Blind in Ratmalana, which was an Anglican institution, from where I could do my O/Levels. Then a stroke of great good fortune befell me - I was offered a scholarship to study at Ladies' College, Colombo!"

"How was it there?" I interpolated. Kamala hesitated slightly before answering.

"On the whole, it was a great experience, but I have to admit that I felt very much a country cousin of the girls at LC and, of course, there were a few snobs among them.

“But there is a story I must tell you. As I prepared to move to Ladies' College, I had no trunk or suitcase in which to take my meagre assortment of clothes. A friend in the Blind School kindly lent me her suitcase, impressing on me that I must return it as she would need it for her own clothes when the holidays came. So, as the end of that first term at LC approached, I was anxious as to how I would take my clothes home. I got a friend to write a letter to my mother, asking for some money with which to buy a suitcase. When the reply came, I asked my dormitory prefect, Chulani, to read it to me.

“She did so - one of my brothers had written to say that things were very bad money-wise, at home, as my father hadn't had any work for some time, and there was no way they could help me. Chulani made no comment - she left the letter with me and went away.

“My father was a poor carpenter. What could I do? About a week later, Chulani brought me a small trunk and said it was for me, to take my clothes when I went home.

“The girls in the dormitory had contributed Rs.2/- each and they had collected Rs.20/- which, through the good offices of the hostel ayah, had been given to one of the male servants to buy a trunk. That trunk has been a treasured possession to this day and is with me still. I told my husband of its history and my son, too."

Kamala said the girls used to read the text books to her and when a teacher wrote something on the blackboard a fellow-student seated near her would read it out to her and sometimes the teacher herself would step down and tell Kamala what she had written. Since answering exam papers in Braille took time, Kamala was always given 20 minutes extra for every hour it took to complete an exam paper. "I was determined to use the opportunity I had been given, to study hard and do well," she told me.

Kamala passed both the O/Level and the A/Level exams well and she entered Peradeniya University in December 1970. "Did you like it there?" Her instant reply was: "It was the best part of my life." Several of her Ladies' College friends were also at the campus and she enjoyed their company as well as that of a few girls from other schools. She took her degree in Philosophy Honours. "What made you choose Philosophy?" "I did Logic for my A/Ls and from there it seemed a natural step to study Philosophy. For my GAQ, I offered Philosophy, Western Classics and Political Science and then I knew that Philosophy was my subject. I loved it and I learnt much - we covered the Philosophy of Religions, Existentialism, Political Philosophy, Aesthetics, Metaphysics. It taught me to think deeply and to be analytical. Yet when I was interviewed for my first teaching job after I graduated, I was told that a philosophy degree only fitted me to “sit under a Bo tree and meditate!”

Romance also overtook her during this time. Kamala was given access to the library at the R.C. seminary in Ampitiya where some of the Brothers were good enough to take turns in reading the books to her. One of them, Francis Xavier, fell in love with her and the feeling was mutual. They were married in 1975 and lived happily together until his premature death in 2005. They have one son, now married himself.

Kamala had taught in Govt. schools for 28 years and she retired in April 2005 to look after her ailing husband. When he died, she went through a bleak period, unable to stop grieving.

One of her LC friends, Lakshani Fernando, had invited her to come and spend a few weeks with her. "Lakshani really took me out of myself and was such good company that I regained my spirits and felt ready to start living again by the time I returned home."

Kamala and her husband had both been very involved in community service through church organisations. She is a trained family counsellor and has much experience in organizing and conducting pre-marital marriage preparation programmes. Today, she has found her niche as Joint Secretary of the Sri Lanka National Federation for the Visually Handicapped and finds great satisfaction in this work. "I am able to serve my community of the visually handicapped," she told me, with a happy smile. The office of the Federation is presently in a building in Narahenpita, but Kamala said they badly need a bigger place. “Braille books are bulky and take up a lot of space - we have to have a computer and a Braille printer, filing cabinets and the usual office equipment.

But where can we find a place at an affordable rent? It would be wonderful if some generous philanthropist came to our aid!"
Kamala herself occupies a small room on these same premises, with little in the way of mod cons or comfort, but this she cheerfully puts up with it because of her dedication to the work. The Federation is specially concerned with a Talking Book project, to make these books available not only to students, but to other adults who wish to read or to keep in touch with current events both here and in the world outside, or to improve their knowledge of some subject.
Kamala goes home to Katuneriya every other weekend.

Here is a woman who came from humble beginnings and isn't ashamed of it. "I will never forget my beginnings," she said. "I have received a lot of help from many people along the way and for this I shall always be grateful. Thanks to my time at Ladies' College and at Peradeniya, I am now at ease in any society - I no longer have that `poor country-cousin' feeling I suffered from when I first entered LC."

Most importantly, she has triumphed over the handicap of blindness. I asked her why she doesn't carry a white cane as she gets around by herself."I don't feel I need one," she said. "I ask for help when necessary and I feel confident that Someone is taking care of me."