On Monday – Children’s Day – 11-year-old Hanna was interviewed a show on a Malayalam news channel. A couple of months ago, Hanna had written the lyrics for a song and also composed the music for it, and she spoke enthusiastically.
A Class 7 student at Rajagiri Christu Jayanti Public School in Ernakulam, Hanna isn’t new to being interviewed on television. Her mother Lija says that Hanna learned her lessons through a software programme which converted text into Braille.
In 2014, Manorama News carried a story on Hanna’s achievements: she cycles and has also learnt karate. After her story was telecast, the channel invited her to anchor a half-hour show featuring children with disabilities. Her fingers flew over the little dots on the sheet of Braille paper, as she spoke of what she wished to achieve.
This year, Hanna was one of the children invited to be part of Manorama News’s Children’s Day celebration. Through the day, Manorama News featured children’s achievements.
While this was Hanna’s second stint at anchoring after 2014, it was Alappuzha native Jayasurya’s first time. He was the only other child with visual impairment to be featured.
12-year-old Jayasurya told The News Minute that he was “not nervous but really excited at the opportunity”.
A student of the School for Blind in Aroor in Alappuzha district, Jayasurya is also the school leader, says his teacher Sunil. Jayasurya has been learning to play harmonium, keyboard and tabla for the past three years, says Sunil.
After a segment on his own life on Manorama News on Monday, Jayasurya co-anchored "Innathe Kanmanikal" with two other anchors from the channel. The script of the show (in Malayalam) was handed over to Jayasurya on Sunday, after which he prepared it in Braille.
Ask him about what he wishes to become, he is quick to respond: “I want to be a lawyer.”
He believes that being smart enough to face the camera will groom him to be a competent lawyer in future.
"I listen to the radio regularly and I have always wanted to be at the other end of the radio... the one who is not merely listening, but the one who hosts the programme. Today, I was able to fulfil that dream," Jayasurya told The News Minute.
According to Manonama News, this is the third consecutive year in which children with visually impairment were featured in special shows on the occasion of Children’s Day. Other Malayalam channels too invited children to anchor various shows.