History is full of instances of people who, despite their physical disabilities, took
life as a challenge and made it big in their field of interest. Here are some of them
who looked at life with optimism and achieved what most of us would have shuddered even to think of!
• Helen Keller was deaf in one ear, and blind due to an illness during infancy. But this did not deter her from undergoing a high standard of education from her life long companion and teacher, Anne Sullivan. Keller later went on to become a well-known author and public speaker.
• Louis Braille was blind from the age of three and was the brain behind the Braille system of writing for the blind which was introduced in 1829.
• Stephen Hawking is a leading English physicist and a Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University,England. He is the author of the best selling book "A Brief History of Time" which deals with black holes, stars, the Big Bang and other mysteries of the Universe. And this is inspite of being confined to the wheelchair because of a rare and progressive neuromotor disease.
• In 1998, Tom Whitaker, who had two severed knees, climbed Mount Everest, thus becoming the first disabled person to do so.
• John Milton, the English poet, was blind. He wrote many famous poems, like On His Blindness, Paradise Lost, Paradise Re-gained.
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was a brilliant Austrian composer, and a proficient pianist. He was blind. His works include 25 piano concertos, 35 violin sonatas, 50 symphonies, and 23 string quartets.
Averting a Predator
Animals in the wild develop ways to escape their enemies. Each animal finds a uinque method and makes an interesting study!
• A rattlesnake has a rattle at the end of its tail. When it eyes a predator, it raises the tail in the air and sounds the rattle. Now the predator notices the rattle and shifts its attention to it, giving the snake enough time to launch an attack.
• A red fox preys on hares and other small animals. Though a brown hare can outrun a fox, it does not do so when it is chased by one. Instead it stops and stands up on its hind legs. And when the fox knows that it has been noticed, it abandons the chase.
• A flying squirrel is threatened by owls and other big birds. So, when a squirrel lands on a tree, it quickly darts to the other side of the tree. And any bird that has been following the squirrel loses sight of it.
Lights Off!
Have you ever wandered what life would be without the light bulb? It was Thomas Alva Edison, one of the greatest scientists of all times, who invented the light bulb. And did you know that when he died on October 18, 1931, all non-essential electric lights in the United States of America were turned off for one minute, including the torch on the Statue of Liberty.
