<p>The Noble Laurette Rabindranath Tagore once said that</p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong><em>&ldquo;Every child comes with the message that God is not yet discouraged of men.&rdquo;</em></strong> &nbsp;</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Through this famous quote perhaps the great bard wants to encourage us to love and welcome children in our lives. Consider them as a blessing.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><strong>However, what if you were a blind mother</strong> from the bottom-most economic rungs of the society?</p>
<p>What if your <strong>only income source was a paralytic husband</strong> who somehow managed to make <em>bidis</em> in a cramped shanty?</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>What if<strong> you had not 1 but 11 children?</strong></p>
<p>And what if<strong> 5 of them were blind from birth?</strong></p>
<h3>&nbsp;</h3>
<h3><strong>Would you still consider children to be a blessing&hellip;?</strong></h3>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>50-year-old Musharat Khatoon is such a mother from Sathmalpur village of Samastipur district of Bihar.</p>
<p><img src="https://www.akhandjyoti.org/public/backend/assets/img/blog-image/Musharat Khatoon-Image 1.png" alt="akhand jyoti" width="800" height="533" />&nbsp;</p>
<h3><strong>Being poor was not her only curse.</strong></h3>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>A <strong>paralytic husband</strong> and <strong>5 blind children</strong> topped her misery. To make matters worse, starting some 2 years back, Musharat herself became blind due to cataracts in both of her eyes.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Prior to her blindness, she used to manage a bit of earning as a hired farmhand. Blindness took that away too. The worst was that <strong>she could not take care of her &lsquo;Blind 5&rsquo; anymore</strong>.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3><strong>5 blind children, a blind mother, and a paralytic father wobbled and fumbled in a ramshackle shanty. </strong></h3>
<p><img src="https://www.akhandjyoti.org/public/backend/assets/img/blog-image/Musharat Khatoon-Image 2.png" alt="akhand jyoti" width="800" height="533" />&nbsp;</p>
<p><strong>Like a reality horror show they tried to survive in a dark and disabled world. </strong>Time and again Musharat had to call 1 of her 2 married daughters to take care of her and blind children. Sometime the daughters came, sometimes she would have to fend for herself.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>All hope seemed lost, till one day Musharat heard an announcement, while lying desperate and hopeless in her bed. She heard that Eastern India&rsquo;s largest Eye Hospital, Akhand Jyoti was organising a free eye camp in her village. <strong>That the hospital would do free eye surgeries for the needy. </strong>&nbsp;</p>
<p><img src="https://www.akhandjyoti.org/public/backend/assets/img/blog-image/Musharat Khatoon-Image 6.png" alt="akhand jyoti" width="800" height="533" />&nbsp;</p>
<p><strong>In elation with a sudden spark of hope, </strong><strong>Musharat twisted and fell from her bed, she crawled towards her main door and flung it open with a &lsquo;thud&rsquo; to listen more clearly to an announcement that seemed completely surreal. </strong></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Her neighbours and bystanders quickly came to lift her up. They made her sit on the threshold. She calmed down and listened more attentively.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><strong>Yes, it was true&hellip; after all there might be a way to defeat her blindness.</strong></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>She went to the village eye camp the next day, where Akhand Jyoti doctors gave her highest priority identifying her as a bilateral cataract patient. However, nothing could be done for her 5 children, who were born blind and could never see in their lifetime.</p>
<p><img src="https://www.akhandjyoti.org/public/backend/assets/img/blog-image/Musharat Khatoon-Image 5.png" alt="akhand jyoti eye hospital" width="800" height="533" />&nbsp;</p>
<p><img src="https://www.akhandjyoti.org/public/backend/assets/img/blog-image/Musharat Khatoon-Image 4.png" alt="akhand jyoti" width="800" height="533" /></p>
<p>Following the diagnosis, <strong>Musharat was brought to Akhand Jyoti base hospital at Mastichak where her left eye was successfully operated completely free of cost</strong>, after which she was dropped back home.</p>
<p><br /> On a follow-up visit to Musharat&rsquo;s house, Akhand Jyoti team members found an overactive Musharat running about taking care of her children, cooking, cleaning, and doing other household chores. She had even resumed her old job as a farmhand and was earning a bit to manage the family better.</p>
<p><img src="https://www.akhandjyoti.org/public/backend/assets/img/blog-image/Musharat Khatoon-Image 7.png" alt="akhand jyoti" width="800" height="533" />&nbsp;</p>
<p><strong><img src="https://www.akhandjyoti.org/public/backend/assets/img/blog-image/Musharat Khatoon-Image 3.png" alt="akhand jyoti" width="800" height="533" /></strong></p>
<p><strong>Now the question remains&hellip; are her children a blessing? Or are they a curse? We do not know that, but certainly know that Musharat now has the capacity (with her renewed vision) to take care of her children and decide on that. </strong></p>
<p><img src="https://www.akhandjyoti.org/public/backend/assets/img/blog-image/Musharat Khatoon-Image 8.png" alt="akhand jyoti" width="800" height="533" />&nbsp;</p>
<p>According to WHO &amp; IAPB Vision 2020</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<blockquote>
<p><em>&ldquo;Cataract Surgery is one of the most cost-effective, safest and fastest healthcare interventions to restore livelihoods and uplift the poor from poverty.&rdquo; </em></p>
</blockquote>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><strong>Today with the looming dark cloud of the COVID-19 pandemic, it has become more important than ever to look into ways to ensuring peoples livelihood&hellip;</strong></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3>Today more than ever cataract surgery remains as an important and precisely effective tool to fight poverty.</h3>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Today more than ever we need to help mother&rsquo;s like Musharat fight curable blindness, so than as humans we may continue to contribute to the fruitful survival of humanity.&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>We at Akhand Jyoti believe that</p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong><em>&rdquo;Hum nazar hi nahin&hellip; nazariyan bhi badalte hain&rdquo;&nbsp;&nbsp;</em></strong></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>meaning</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><strong>&ldquo;We not only restore vision&hellip; but change perspectives too&rdquo;</strong></p>
</blockquote>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>#ChangingPerspectives</p>