MUMBAI, Dec. 24 -- Can you be born poor, blind, saddled with other disabilities, and yet Two visionary women helped them say, 'Yes, we can'. It all began hundred years ago, in a dingy room of Mumbai's BDD Chawls where the indomitable Coomi Sohrab Bharoocha nurtured six blind orphans. Unfazed by regular schools constantly turning away the growing number, she said, 'Fine, we'll educate them ourselves.' And better. In 1948, she did so aided by Blind Relief Association President, M N Chhatrapati, and called it Happy Home and School for the Blind (HHSB). By 1960, its 65 inmates were crammed into the chawl -- classes by day, dorms at night. Fresh out of college, Meher Banaji began volunteering with the National Association for the Blind, but drifted. Meeting Bharoocha in 1969, she knew she'd found her harbour. Enrolling at Birmingham University, she trained in special education specifically for the visually impaired. Back in Bombay, tireless Bharoocha managed to acquire a large plot in upmarket Annie Besant Road -- and the services of storied architect IM Kadri. In 1971, HHSB moved from the chawl to a purpose-built, art deco building, where it could fully live up to its name. Banaji -- first as principal and now director -- runs a tight ship, but it's a palpably happy place, bathed in sun and sea breeze, spacious, brightly painted, filled with chatter, music and an enviable bounty of greenery. A nurturing home, a proper school from Montessori to SSC, here the blind are helped to create a world with what they can hear, touch, taste and partly see or not at all. Spurning the conventional straitjacket of 'braille and basket-weaving' early on, it began teaching conventional 3 Rs -- as conventionally as possible. Rues Banaji, "In the past (and sadly still so) it was just blind is blind, with no shades of grey. But there are degrees of visual impairment, limited or residual, or shadow vision where they can see only blurred shapes. We make the most of what we have, co-opt the compensatory senses that nature usually provides, make children use every sense to the fullest - and get great results." If children can see enough to count fingers, large print and special spectacles can enable them to read and write, and master computers. Many of the boys have had multiple surgeries -- the city's best ophthalmologists work pro bono like so many lawyers, architects and music teachers. Umar Sheikh brings out his drawing book filled with his pencil sketches of faces; with a twinge you notice that their most noticeable feature is their wide open eyes. His essays are in copybook handwriting. The city's well-heeled throng HHSB's year-end Sale of Work, choosing from a range of glazed pottery, ovenproof, microwaveable and lead-free; greeting cards featuring their own students' watercolours (courtesy aromatic paints); and amazing mosaics made from shards of glass they've precisely shaped with diamond cutters. Thank you, Atal Bihari Vajpayee. High Network Banaji got the PM to inaugurate the gym when on a private 2003 visit. Overwhelmed by the flawless malkhamb display, he asked if he could meet all the children. They came in a neat, unaided line down the steps. Days later, a personal cheque arrived. Its Rs.15 lakh went into a fully equipped mosaic studio. President Dr Abdul Kalam had chatted with Banaji while awarding her a Padmashree in 2004; not long after, en route to neighbouring Nehru Centre, he 'dropped in' and interacted with the boys in his warm, wise, down-to-earth way. After POI came POTUS. In March 2009, Bill Clinton's armoured limo made an unscripted stop on his way to Sahar. On his way in, he'd noticed the line of smartly uniformed children waving to his motorcade, and was told they were all the blind. Moved, he decided to visit. Dedicated teachers in the rare ratio of 1:10 are buttressed by volunteers. We missed the seven-year-old who comes in to read, but did find restauranteur-musician Marzy F Parakh figuring out how best to work with alumnus Raghu Gajjar, who returns annually from his HR job in Birmingham to teach/ play several instruments, and how to promote Hiren, gifted soloist across genres who also struggles with severe autism. Julio Ribeiro and M Hidayatullah have led the advisory committee. Zubin Mehta's Baby Grand is only one example of Yusuf 'Cipla' Hamied's generosity. HSBC has been an unwavering benefactor. The Taj lays on dinner for the choir during its weeklong Christmas 'gig' in the lobby - and barely 10 days after 26/11, there was its liveried staff serving a lavish High Tea on Annual Sale's opening eve. Not Stevie Wonder, Helen Keller, Milton or Homer. The presence felt most is St Francis of Assissi's prayer: 'Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace. /Where there is darkness, let there be light/ Where there is sadness, joy.'...