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[ Chukhu Indu ]<\/strong><\/p>\n “Nothing is fixed in the universe, not even the fundamental particles that are the building blocks of all physical existence; neither the functions and structures of our brain, nor the world around us. This includes our identities and capacities. They are not immutably fixed. Today, I no longer have to subscribe to the belief in the inherent incapacity of the blind, and I no longer have to unquestioningly embody the immobile disabled blind identity that I abhor.<\/p>\n “Believe me, what a relief that is!” says independent researcher Thomas Tajo, who is currently the president of an international non-profit, Vision Inclusive.<\/p>\n Born in Chayang Tajo in East Kameng district, Tajo currently lives in Belgium.<\/p>\n The following are excerpts from an interaction between The Arunachal Times staff reporter Chukhu Indu and Tajo.<\/p>\n Chukhu Indu: Tell us about your childhood?<\/p>\n Thomas Tajo: Well, I was born in a remote village called Chayang Tajo and my biological parents are illiterate. It was in the early ’90s that a Catholic missionary, Prem bhai, came to my village and later made arrangements for me to study in a boarding school.<\/p>\n I was about 14 to 15 years of age that time. I became blind when I was 8 or 9 years of age.<\/p>\n CI: Tell us about your schooling days and your higher studies?<\/p>\n TT: I did my basic schooling from Shillong in Meghalaya, and later earned a bachelor’s degree by distance learning from New Delhi. After that, I was adopted by my current parent in Belgium.<\/p>\n CI: How was your life in India before moving overseas?<\/p>\n TT: I went into depression and music helped me so much in the process of recovery.<\/p>\n CI: Having two families from two different countries is wholesome, isn’t it?<\/p>\n TT: Yes it is. Here in Arunachal Pradesh, in the tribal culture, we have a deep clanism system, whereas in the West, we are only inclined to one’s family tree and not beyond that. I have been privileged to meet all the luxury that I can avail as a citizen of Belgium. However, it pains my heart to see that our state is still lagging far behind.<\/p>\n As per a 2011 report, the ratio of people with disabilities is 2:68 crore – more than the entire population of Australia.<\/p>\n Tajo emphasised on “the implementation side from the government, especially here in the state and in the country.”<\/p>\n He travels across the world, lecturing at various universities and scientific forums. He also teaches echolocation and mobility lessons during workshops organised for blind children and adults.<\/p>\n Tajo teaches in English, Hindi and Dutch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [ Chukhu Indu ] “Nothing is fixed in the universe, not even the fundamental particles that are the building blocks of all physical existence; neither the functions and structures of our brain, nor the world around us. This includes our identities and capacities. They are not immutably fixed. Today, I no longer have to subscribe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":210489,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-210479","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-state-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210479\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/210489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}