One day, everyone in class except Sarita had submitted their classwork to the teacher. When she finally presented her work, the teacher humiliated her and hit her head with a stick.
“The teacher was not satisfied with my written work,” Sarita remembers. “I could answer all questions orally, but I was belittled for not having legible writing.”
The incident traumatised Sarita, who stopped going to school. She stayed home listening to radio programs, reciting poems and compositions she heard on the radio.
Then a chance encounter with a foreign visitor to the school took her life in a new direction. The man talked about a school for the blind in Kathmandu and suggested that Devikumari send her daughter there.