Adventure and Sports

T-20 Blind World Cup champs India take on Australia on 13th-14th April in Bengaluru

The essential characteristic of the world of the Blind or visually impaired is darkness in varied degrees. How well do we, the sighted, comprehend this world? What is it like to dance, sing, laugh, eat and cry in the dark? Prevention of Blindness Week, observed during the first week of April, highlights the key needs and efforts to address the challenges confronting visual impairment in the country.

Activities as part of Prevention of Blindness Week

Visually impaired Alpine skier lends his guide to teammate leading to Sochi Paralympics bronze medal

Guidelines for the Paralympics

Beyond the obvious - athletes with paraplegia, missing limbs and visual impairments - one of the biggest differences between the Winter Olympics and the Paralympics is that there is no judged sport in the latter.

It's just slightly modified hockey and curling games.

With competition set to get underway Saturday, here is a capsule look at the Paralympic sports.

PARA-ALPINE

Have learnt things from blind cricket, says Tendulkar

Retired cricket great Sachin Tendulkar today said he was fascinated by the way visually-impaired play the game he dominated for close to two-and-a-half decades, adding that has learnt a few things from them.

"I inaugurated the blind cricket tournament about 14-15 years ago in Mumbai and I was fascinated by the way they play cricket, because you just hear and react to that. And you score runs and get wickets and you feel all those kinds of things. They are unbelievable and I was fascinated to see all that," Tendulkar said.

Veer: Charudatta Jadhav, the visually impaired hero of Indian chess

A visually impaired chess champion, Charudatta Jadhav, is helping many others like him to master the game and checkmate the many challenges in life.

He may need a walking stick to help him find his way but he is a true master when it comes to the game of chess. Charudatta Jadhav lost his vision at the age of 13. The only reason that gave him courage to fight his disability at that tender age was his passion for the game. He soon became the blind superhero of Indian chess.

Sochi Winter Paralympics: Guide to the sports

The Winter Paralympics started in 1976 in Ornskoldsvik, Sweden featuring 198 athletes from 16 countries.

The Games featured alpine and Nordic skiing for amputee and visually impaired athletes and a demonstration event in sledge racing.

The 2014 Winter Paralympics run from 7-16 March in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi - the first time that a Paralympic Games has been held in Russia and is expected to feature over 600 athletes from 44 countries.

Visually impaired Indian cricket team looking for that elusive win in Pakistan

Captain Shekhar Naik wants to break the losing streak in Pakistan but even in the second T- 20 match on Sunday, the Indian team's luck did not hold. Pakistan scored the target of 208 runs set by India, winning by nine wickets.

Julie Scarle: Sports for all? We’re not at the finish line yet!

WHO can forget the summer of 2012 and our Paralympic gold medallists, ‘Hurricane’ Hannah Cockroft, Dame Sarah Storey and local hero Richard Whitehead, who put disability sport on the map and are now household names?

With just more than a month to go until the Winter Paralympics gets under way in Sochi, I sincerely hope the public will put the controversy surrounding the games to one side and get behind our winter medal hopefuls in wheelchair curling and the brilliant but brutal ice sledge hockey.

Memorable Drive for Visually Challenged

It was a memorable day for the visually impaired students of the Institute for the Blind as they went around the city as navigators for a unique car rally here on Sunday.

Visually impaired guide drivers during Nagpur car rally

In one-of-its-kind initiative, a car rally for visually impaired people was organised in Nagpur, Maharashtra, over the weekend.

During the rally, participants used a route map in Braille to guide drivers to navigate the terrain.