Victory's anger
"Just for the money." Victory said angrily about her class teacher. This was the first time I was seeing Victory so forceful and so angry so I couldn't help admiring her intense beauty at that crucial moment. Her eyes were really captivating with their light brown colour and long eyelashes. Her v-shaped chin and oval face highlighted her expression.
Victory lies to her class teacher
"She called me just for the money. So I told a lie. I told her that I had booked a ticket to go home in the holidays while they went on their tour. Until now I didn't expect anything from anybody. Normally I wouldn't have stood up when she asked who were willing to join the tour. Only after getting to know you I have started moving freely with others.
She said earlier that she couldn't take responsibility of me. Then when enough girls didn't join and so the amount for the van didn't add up to what was needed, she asked me to join.
.Just for the money."
Victory's past
Victory was partially blind in both eyes. But she wasn't born blind. Those who were born blind adjusted well to the situation. They had learned to manage by themselves and understood that people might ignore them now and then.
When Victory was in the 8th standard she started having serious problems with her vision. Being unable to continue with her studies, she tried her hand at arts and crafts. But didn't like it.Learnt braille and appeared for her 10th public exam. Then passed her 12th privately. And then joined this college to do her B.A. where they had a resource centre for the blind. That's where I met her as I had gone there to do my B.Ed (Bachelor of Education) and had opted for IEVH ( Integrated Education for the Visually Handicapped).
Both of us were at the hostel but at different blocks.So right after tea in the evenings I'd rush to the resource room to read out to her from her classmate's notebook while she typed on the brailler. An hour later we'd have compulsory prayer for 15-20 minutes. And then we'd be free.
How we became friends
One day I went to meet her at this time.
"What do you want?" she asked roughly.
"Why, I just came to talk to you," I said puzzled.
'Don't you have friends of your own? Didn't we already spend one hour together?" she asked in the same tone.
"That one hour is hardly enough to cover one whole day's portions. How can I talk to you at that time? So you find me disagreeable! In that case I'll go," I said and turned around.
"No,no, I didn't mean it that way. Come in." she said, inviting me in.
And that's how our friendship began. I found myself sharing with her all the stories of different books I had read, all the movies I had seen, all the places I had visited. She rarely interrupted me. Her lips formed a soft smile and she seemed to be imagining the stories.
"What are you thinking?" I'd ask her now and then. "Nothing special, just enjoying the stories as they are. You've taken me to a far off world of other people, their experiences. Until now I used to think only about myself all the time."
In my own room I found an atmosphere of envying, jealousy and snide remarks. So I found myself more and more in Victory's presence. In moonlight or under the stars, as long as we were allowed to stay outside our blocks.
Both of us realised that there were worlds outside our own where others too have experiences, some like ours, others different.
Victory grew in self respect and in a zeal for life, to overcome and to face what lay ahead.
(a friend's story)
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