Reading for the sightless

Social worker Devi Krishna runs ‘Hidden Voices’, which provides audio books and magazines for the visually challenged

By Shevlin Sebastian

In 2019, the Kochi psychotherapist Devi Krishna was at a loose end. Yes, she worked as a freelance psychotherapist and also as a Hindi teacher for Classes 3-5 at a leading private school. But her life lacked meaning and purpose.

One day, to pass the time, she had gone to meet a group of friends at Kochi. They were associated with the visually impaired. While there, she met a man named Sudheesh, 42, a visually-challenged teacher. He worked in a school at Tirur (135 kms from Kochi).

Sudheesh recounted to Devi that while he was on his way to school in Malappuram to do his class 10 examinations, he lost his eyesight suddenly. This can happen if you suffer from retinitis pigmentosa. It causes cells in the retina to break down over time and cause an abrupt loss of vision. It came as a shock to him. His life descended into darkness.

Sudheesh said, “The problem for us visually challenged people is that for academic textbooks, there were no audio recordings. We can read by using Braille but many of us prefer to hear. It makes studying easier for us.”

Devi got a brainwave. ‘I could do this,’ she thought.

So she proceeded to make recordings of academic books. She sent it across to Sudheesh. Sudheesh heard it and told Devi it was very good and would fill a lacuna. That was when Devi got the idea that she should set up a library of audio books for the blind.

On April 28, 2019, Devi set up ‘Hidden Voices’. Asked for the reasons behind the name, Devi says, “We prefer to remain discreet in our actions. I adhere to the notion that help rendered should be humble and concealed.”

Today, in the fifth year of ‘Hidden Voices’, Devi, 50, says there are 4753 readers. All are volunteers. They range in age from five to 92. The oldest is the Hyderabad-based Devisetty Venkata Subrahmanyam. “He loves to read for the visually challenged,” says Devi. “Subrahmanyam Sir has a very clear diction.” The other readers live in India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Kuwait, the US, Mexico, and Singapore.

The readers are selected based on their diction, voice tone, and clarity. There should be no background noise like fans or traffic sounds in the recordings.

Once ‘Hidden Voices’ receives a recording, they look for factual errors and mistakes in diction or pronunciation. The team uses software like Adobe Enhance to edit the recordings.

The books that are read include fiction, non-fiction and magazines. They are aimed at students from kindergarten to college. In children’s fiction, the popular titles are the Harry Potter series, as well as the Enid Blyton books.

For older readers, there are autobiographies of Mahatma Gandhi, former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, and former Indian President APJ Abdul Kalam. There are plays by William Shakespeare and novels by Jane Eyre. Even American author Herman Melville’s classic tale of adventure ‘Moby Dick’ has made it to the list.

The most requested books are in the motivational and self-help categories. Right on top is Rhonda Byrne’s ‘The Secret’. This is followed by Paulo Coelho’s ‘The Alchemist’ and many Osho books. “We have recorded 50,000 pages of Osho,” says Lekshmy. “It is an ongoing project.”

There are academic books, as well as guides for the preparation for the Union Public Service Commission examination. People ask for the Constitution of India, too. Many of the visually challenged opt for law. “For many professions, you need the use of eyes, like as a doctor or a scientist,” says Devi. “So they prefer to be lawyers.”

Incidentally, one reader does not read an entire book of, say, 200 pages. They divide it among four readers to speed up the process. “If it is fiction, listeners do get disoriented when the narrative voice changes,” says Devi. “But for academic books, it is fine.”

One student, Chilaka Nithish, who is from Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, sent an audio message to Devi. Nitish said, “I want to give feedback for a Telugu novel written by Kovalli Lakshmi Narasimha Rao. I thank all the volunteers. It is an interesting book. I listened to all the stories. Thanks once again.”

Aishwarya R, a Chennai-based software engineer, has been reading for the past two years. Aishwarya came to know about ‘Hidden Voices’ through a friend, who had asked for volunteers on social media. In the beginning, Aishwarya read English and Hindi academic books. “Now I read English novels because of a want of time,” she says. “So far, I have done about 80 recordings.”

At present, Aishwarya is reading a book in translation called ‘Shivaji — The Great Maratha’ by the late Marathi writer Ranjit Desai. Asked why she is doing this, Aishwarya says, “This is a kind of social service. Secondly, it enables me to remain in touch with reading.”

The students get the recording if they send a request on WhatsApp or Telegram. The recordings are available in 17 Indian languages.

Devi says they are looking for funding. Many of the visually challenged do not come from financially well-off backgrounds. So, she buys laptops and mobile phones for them. She also pays college fees and provides software upgrades. “So far I have depended on the charity of my friends and well-wishers,” she says. “Now I am approaching corporations to help us with their funds in CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility).”