Differently-abled kids draw an ace in quiz

As quiz-master Jigna Joshi asked over the microphone,How many legs does a cow have? a teacher bent over Jay Desai,took his hand and wrote the question on his palm.

As quiz-master Jigna Joshi asked over the microphone,How many legs does a cow have? a teacher bent over Jay Desai,took his hand and wrote the question on his palm. Lip-syncing the answer,Jay,who lost his hearing and then his eyesight,replied with excitement: Four legs.

What followed immediately was the sound of applause that rent through the air as teachers,workers and parents cheered the kids on. But the loudest clapping came from children like Jay,whove learnt to live with challenges.

Such touching moments and more made up for the grand success of the first such quiz organised for differently-abled children by the Blind Peoples Association of Ahmedabad. The event was sponsored by GE Money.

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We could have done a song and dance programme,but then thats what all other regular children can do. We then decided to do things differently and organised a quiz competition, said Nandini Raval,the associations project director.

About 180 children from the associations seven centers

in and around Ahmedabad,with disabilities ranging from autism to mental retardation came to see the quiz in which 60 of them participated. Some of these children are on medication,which is why not all of them respond properly, explained Raval.

The teachers of the respective blind schools had worked hard with the children. They had carried out dummy runs in which they had shown them pictures and objects and framed questions for the quiz that could be in a choose-the-correct-answer format.

After the competition ended and the prizes were distributed,the children stood up to sing their anthem Those who do not take part,they always lose. Those of us who do,we always win that spread joy and hope.

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