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Mythili Rajkumar

The computer opened a new world of vision and wonder to a 70-plus user.

YOUR eyes feel sore and tired? Blame it on the computer, says the doc.

But the computer can come in for a bit of praise too, in this instance from a 70-plus partially-sighted user.

S. Dorai Raj, of Sholavandan, near Madurai, Tamil Nadu, suffered retinal haemorrhage soon after he retired, at 60, from an insurance job. The haemorrhage robbed him of vision, partially. The residual vision was saved with timely laser treatment. But he was not able to read as he had lost what is called the central vision.

This was in 1991. Ten years later, in 2001, he visited his daughter in the US who supplied him with illuminated magnifying glasses to read large-print books. And then he discovered the computer.

Dorai Raj says he began in a small way. He found he could read online with as much ease as possible by increasing the size of the letters to suit his needs. His vision impairment was not a hurdle to online reading, after all. Initially he fumbled. But the spur to do better was his five-year-old grand-daughter - and her dexterity in handling the mouse.

He learnt to compose and send mails, after some initial hiccups. "I would panic, fret and fume when my work, so painstakingly produced, vanished from the screen in a jiffy," he recalls.

He visited his daughter again the next year. By this time he was hooked, and wanted to do more with the computer besides sending mail. He read up help and troubleshooting menus, and `How to' articles. Through painstaking trial and error experiments, he learnt the rudiments of computing. He had the chance to pry open a couple of discarded computers to learn something of hardware. He has reached an impressive level of proficiency for a novice - he can attach and install, without outside help, a CD-ROM drive, CD Writer drive, RAM, modem and printer.

The computer has opened a whole new world of information and contact, he says. "I've realised belatedly that I should have learnt computing long ago, when my eyesight was normal. Sitting at home, choosing your own time, you can access information that is relevant to you from around the world. Communication is cost-effective in terms of time and money, convenient and instantaneous."

He paints an attractive picture for the lonely elderly in Indian homes. The self-reliance it fosters does wonders for the morale. One can book rail/air tickets, operate one's bank account, chat with friends and relatives outside India, even see loved ones as one chats, with a Web cam.

There have been other concrete gains too, for Dorai Raj. Through the computer, he says, he learnt what his rights were as an international air passenger, what Denied Boarding Compensation (DBC) means, what the liability of the carrier is, in the event of delay in the carriage by air of passengers, baggage, etc., the limit of liability of the carrier, the procedure, and the time limit for filing claims, etc.

"The information I gathered from the concerned Web sites helped me file a complaint against an airline. In support of my complaint, I could cite higher courts' judgments available on the Web." And when his granddaughter was posted for surgery for removal of her adenoids, the Internet allayed his fears. He cites the BBC Web site and its `Ask the Doctor' service. "I asked a question and got a reply, which reassured me that there was nothing to worry about the surgery."

He lists some books that helped him learn on his own: Windows 95 for dummies by Andy Rathbone; Word for Windows for dummies by Don Gookin and Ray Werner; How To Do Everything With The Internet by Dennis Jones; DOS For Dummies by Don Gookin and Mastering Windows XP Home Edition by Guy Hart-Davis.

With all that he's learnt, there's no sitting back. "I am contemplating to offer my services (gratis, of course) to train people in the basics of computing, within my limitations. I'm looking for Tamil software suitable for non-English knowing rural people," he says.

Picture by K. Ananthan

mythili@thehindu.co.in

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