Above: Bhai Gurmej Singh at work. Below: Bhai Jagjit Singh assists him by reading from the Guru Granth Sahib.
People
Guru Granth Sahib in Braille
by PERNEET SINGH, et al
Even though Gurbani had earlier been transliterated into Braille for the benefit of the sight-impaired, Bhai Gurmej Singh, a visually impaired raagi who served at the Durbar Sahib in Amritsar for nearly three decades, has been working on a project to transliterate and publish Guru Granth Sahib in Braille.
The complete Sikh Scripture in Braille will be in a number of volumes, due to technical difficulties involved in the work.
Bhai Gurmej Singh explains: “With proof reading work underway, my dream project is inching towards completion. The Guru Granth Sahib in Braille will come out in volumes numbered between 18 and 24, depending upon the size of the paper we get for printing it.”
He said that he, along with his nephew Jagjit Singh who hails from New Zealand, have spent a month in Mumbai for proof reading and printing work at Helen Keller Institute for Deaf and Deaf-Blind. “Though we have finished with proof reading once, we are doing it all over again to make sure that the final copy of the holy book is error free,” he added.
They started working on the project in August 2009 and first had Guru Granth Sahib printed in Braille in 24 volumes. “At that time I used to receive volumes for proof reading in Amritsar one by one from Mumbai. However, those involved in printing work could not decipher the corrections made by me and the work could not gain the desired momentum. So, we landed up in Mumbai ... We not only finished proof reading work but also got the holy book printed in a bigger sized paper, which reduced the number of volumes from 24 to 18.”
Bhai Gurmej Singh sent his son Harpreet to the West to zero in on suitable paper on which the Guru Granth Sahib could be ideally printed in Braille.
Jagjit said, “To ensure long life of the work, we are looking for fine-quality paper which is not easy to find in India. It may even be done on plastic which is untearable and water proof. Its cost too would be manifold as compared to the paper that we have used now.”
Once the paper has been finalised for printing work in Braille, Bhai Gurmej Singh intends to offer his services to all those who want to get a copy of it on a non-profit basis.
“It would not be a difficult job for us to print more copies as we are ready with the digitized form (CDs) of Guru Granth Sahib in Braille,” he averred.
Bhai Gurmej Singh studied at the Amritsar college founded by Bhai Veer Singh for the benefit of the disabled and visually impaired.
The curriculum is designed so that children with special needs make use of their lives and become as independent as possible and be gainfully employed. Such children are taught not only to read and write Braille, but also to do simple jobs such as looking after themselves. The courses include lessons on music as well.
Gurmej Singh succeeded in music and was employed at the age of 17 at the Dehradun gurdwara to do kirtan. He was a regular visitor to the biggest Braille press located in that city and worked with the people concerned to completing small sections of gurbani in Braille.
He has dedicated all his life for the community in order that people could have opportunities that were unavailable to him.
A man of great learning, Gurmej Singh is widely respected for his unique style of rendering kirtan. He recites most shabads from memory.
Copies of the publication are now being donated to different institutes in India.
Gurmej Singh has also kept in mind two visually impaired New Zealand born twins, and is planning to gift the Braille Edition to them.
[Courtesy: The Tribune, Indian NewsLink. Edited for sikhchic.com]
January 22, 2012
Conversation about this article
1: Harnaam (Canada), January 22, 2012, 7:44 AM.
Could someone please post some contact information regarding Bhai Gurmej Singh or how the braille volumes may be obtained?
2: Kanwarjeet Singh (Franklin Park, New Jersey, U.S.A.), January 22, 2012, 8:41 AM.
Congratulations to Giani ji - this is a great effort. I wish him success in his project of releasing the plastic, braille version of Guru Granth Sahib. I think this is his own effort, with no support from SGPC/DGPC - hence, the success. How will we ever deal with our mentally blind?
3: Navjot Kaur (Canada), January 23, 2012, 11:15 AM.
Amazing!
4: Gurdip (U.S.A.), January 24, 2012, 11:34 AM.
This article makes you wonder how much our eyes play such a vital role. If one has the sense of sight, then one is able to carry on with so much more in select fields vs. a blind person. If all of us were blind, would we then have much more time to do kirtan?
5: Virander Pal Singh (India), May 30, 2012, 4:34 AM.
Could someone please post some contact information regarding Bhai Gurmej Singh or how the braille volumes may be obtained?
6: Jasdeep Singh (India), December 17, 2012, 1:33 PM.
Contact info of Bhai Gurmej Singh: M: 9417691790, 9878081013. Address: #2 Rajinder Nagar, opp. Dhingra Hospital, Ajit NAgar, Amritsar, Punjab, India #0183-2702091.