To be stricken blind at 30, an age when you take your senses for granted, when it is really too late to think of acquiring such basic and totally new skills. Enough to reduce anyone to despair! But consider the case of Poondi Bashyam Krishnaswami.

Born in 1923, he suddenly lost his sense of sight one day in 1953. A doctor told him that a blood clot had caused retinal haemorrhage, bringing on blindness. Medical science not being as advanced as it is today, Krishnaswami had to reconcile himself to living life as a visually handicapped person. He approached the Poonamallee Special School for the Blind, but found the teaching unsatisfactory. So in 1956, he decided to join the Dehra Dun Training Center for the Adult Blind and take a course in craft and Braille. The cold weather numbed his fingers, making even the study of Braille difficult. He might have even given up his studies had it not been for his tutor Ghosh, who encouraged and enthused him enough to brave the weather, learn the craft and Braille in three months, for which others generally took one or two years.

On the Superintendent A.H.Mortimer's recommendation, Krishnaswami went on to the Perkins School for the Blind in Water Town, USA, the school where Helen Keller also studied. Since he had already done his Bachelor of Education course in Chennai's Meston College, he took an M.Ed. course in Special Education at the Boston University after acquiring the required number of credits from the course at Perkins. In 1958, the UPSC interviewed him for the Model School for Blind Children in Dehra Dun and was selected not as an ordinary Principal but one with six advance increments.

A pioneer in the field, Krishnaswamy gave proper shape to the school, which was otherwise just limping along. On his initiative, many teachers were sent abroad for training in arts, drama and various other subjects. Such was his diligence and enterprise, he would even check the school accounts. He believed that activities relating to everyday life like cooking, cleaning, etc. should be taught so that the visually handicapped could be self-reliant and independent. Thanks to his persistent efforts, the institution became a model school for the blind.

Even today in his late seventies, Krishnaswami continues to do all his daily chores himself. He maintains interest in matters related to helping the blind and was a member of the committee that has brought out a book on Tamil contractions in Braille. He is an active member of the National Association for the Blind, the Blind Men's Association and the Blind Graduates' Association.

Our life is in our hands. Adversity is what we make of it.