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“You get just one life. It may have many ups and downs but you should never give up”

When your dreams are still in colour but your waking moments are shrouded in black, when you’re trying to emerge from what feels like “a dark tunnel which has no opening”, a message on the radio can signal a new direction to your life.
 
Life tested Yasir Ahmad Khan (29) from Anantnag more than once. When he was 14, his father, Abdul Rashid Khan, who had served in the Indian Army for nearly two decades and retired as a Havaldar, was killed by militants. Then, just three years later, Yasir lost his vision from retinal detachment.
 
Doctors could not explain why it happened. Some felt it could have originated earlier since he used to occasionally see a ‘jali’ or mesh pattern and sudden flashes of blue and green light. The hospital visits started, from initial surgery at AIIMS Delhi in March 2015, to a private hospital in Indore, to the Army Base hospital in Srinagar. Treatment continued until 2017, with the welfare support the Indian Armed Forces provided for families of ex-servicemen.
 
“If you have lived a life full of colours, adjusting to a world that is mostly black is very difficult,” says Yasir. “My dreams are still in colour.” Understandably he fell into a depression and endured many sleepless nights for which he took sleeping pills for some periods. “I felt like a caged bird, as if all my desires and dreams had lost their wings.”
 
Slowly, with the support of family and friends, he started putting the pieces of his life back in place. He remembers a time when Kashmir had only Nokia phones and very poor network connectivity. Mostly they would listen to the radio. One day he was listening to FM Radio and came across this advertisement for a helpline for persons with disabilities (PwDs). He called them and was introduced to the Humanity Welfare Organisation Helpline (HWOHL).
 
HWOHL, founded by Padma Awardee Javed Ahmad Tak, helped Yasir begin rebuilding his independence. Yasir credits Javed with not just providing opportunities but also changing the way he envisioned his future. “The road looked long,” Yasir says, “but Javed-Sir taught me how to keep walking until you reach your destination.”
 
Yasir rapidly sped down that road. After basic training in Braille and mobility, he completed Class 10 through open schooling in 2017, and got three months of training in daily life skills – movement, using the cane, sewing buttons, cooking, and computers – at Dehradun’s National Institute for the Empowerment of Persons with Visual Disabilities (NIEPVD). He finished his Grades 11 and 12 from Saiyyid Hamid Senior Secondary School (Boys) of Aligarh Muslim University, and did a B.A. in Political Science from PGDAV College, Delhi University. He returned to NIEPVD for coaching to prepare for competitive examinations. In 2024, he joined The Blind Relief Association, Delhi and did a one-year Diploma in Computer Education and Assistive Technology for people with visual impairment.
 
Today, Yasir is an active advocate for the rights of PwDs and a board member of the Zaiba Aapa Institute of Inclusive Education, an initiative of the HWOHL. At the Institute, he teaches computers to visually impaired kids of Grades 1-12. He also teaches Grade 4 and 5 students of Jammu & Kashmir Handicapped Association (JKHCA). He wants visually impaired students to be adept at using computers, laptops and assistive technologies so they do not always have to depend on a human scribe to study or take examinations.
 
Yasir’s own independence extends well beyond the classroom. He makes his own tea and coffee, washes and irons his clothes and travels independently. Not that there aren’t occasional frustrations – when choosing the colour of his clothes, for example. When loneliness hits him, there are always old friends from his school and neighbourhood to pull him out of it. He enjoys travelling with them, going on treks and train journeys to explore different places in J&K, Madhya Pradesh and elsewhere, from Amritsar in Punjab to Hampi in Karnataka. A firm believer in the mental health benefits of sports, Yasir has promoted blind cricket in J&K. He is troubled by drug usage among the youth and was part of the 100-day Nasha Mukt Bharat (drug-free India) awareness campaign started by the Lt. Governor of J&K.
 
Yasir gives credit to his mother, Haseena Begum, a homemaker who believed in him right through. His younger brother, Mosonn Ahmad Khan (23), is doing his graduation, his younger sister Insha Rashid Khan (21) has just graduated, and his elder sister is married.
 
The teenager who once wondered whether his dreams had ended now teaches children how technology can open doors for them. Yasir may no longer be able to see the colours around him, but he is helping others give colour to their dreams.