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She can't see any more, but she has
got a vision
WSN Network
CHANDIGARH: It's
with a huge smile that 29-year-old Rashpal Kaur meets us at the door
of her Sector 35 home. The smile stays as she turns around, reaches
for the wall, feels her way up and leads us to a flight of stairs.
“I believe you
know,” she says aloud before adding, “I am completely blind now.”
This time, the
smile leaves us. All we knew before meeting her was that she is one
of the finalists from the city for Zee TV’s upcoming dance reality
show ‘Dance India Dance’. The news is a surprise for Kaur too.
“A team from the
channel visited me a few days ago. They shot with me the entire day
and said it would be aired soon,” says the contestant who signed up
for the auditions held in the city last month. Back then, however,
she could still make out night from day. This January afternoon
sitting in her sunlit room all she can see is ‘black’.
It wasn’t always
like that though. “I developed a tumour in the brain and was
operated upon three years ago. But my vision started deteriorating
slowly. After my child was born, I lost my vision completely,” Kaur
says, surprisingly without any remorse.
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This is the
story of a wonderful young Sikh woman who has lost her eyesight
but is pursuing her dream of dance. She is a great Gatka
exponent and a frequent participant in
Chandigarh's
Nagar Kirtans. |
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Here’s perhaps
why. “Dance has been my passion ever since I was a child. Even
though I wasn’t allowed to learn professionally, I would choreograph
my own sequences,” says Kaur who participated in all dance and stage
shows held in her school and elsewhere. The accolades came easy and
she even taught dance for three years at the
Silver Oaks
School before her vision gave up on her.
“They wanted me
to continue but I could no longer see my students,” she rues. Not
being the one to lie low, Rashpal bounced back by turning up for the
recent dance auditions. “I usually count my steps around the stage
and then calculate mentally while dancing,” says Kaur who makes it a
point to tell her judges to select her on the basis of talent and
not sympathy. Speaking of which, she seems to possess more than one.
“I learnt Sikh martial arts as a child and continue with the same. I
recently participated at the Nagar Kirtan,” Kaur’s spirited story
continues to amaze.
Not only can she
do all the moves with the weapons involved in martial arts, but she
also has the skills of a teacher. “I teach young students at the
Singh Sabha Gurdwara in Sector 35 every evening,” she says before
adding, “Here again I count my steps and perform in a circle I make
mentally.” With her blindness, she only regrets she can’t take up
one-on-one fights.
And for her
never say die attitude and will-power, the 29-year-old has her
family to thank. “My husband, my mother-in-law, my sister-in-law —
just about everyone in the family has always encouraged me. And yes,
I have a lot of faith,” she says and this time her eyes do all the
talking.
21 January 2009
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