The Richard Walsh Music Project was established in 2009 to enable disadvantaged children in southern India to learn music and the performing arts. The project has been supporting the School for the Blind in Amalarakkini, Tamil Nadu. Sasikala, who began life with a terrible handicap and who is now 14 years old, is one of the students; this is her story.

The pain of not being loved is probably the most difficult to bear, especially if you have reasons to believe that you deserve it. Being born as the third girl in a rural, poverty-stricken family in southern India is bad enough, as parents see girls as a burden that increases with each additional daughter. Not only will they have to pay for their daughters’ weddings and dowries, but all the cost of their food, clothing, shelter and education is a dead investment.

But if, like Sasikala, a girl is blind or suffers any other disability, she is also vulnerable to being abused – sexually, mentally, physically or emotionally.

When she was still in the womb, her parents had a violent argument, which resulted in her mother setting fire to herself. Though her father saved the mother and unborn child, Sasikala’s blindness is attributed to the trauma she suffered.

Drowned in a well

Her earliest childhood memories are of being a daddy’s girl and craving for her mother’s love and care. When she was just three years old her father, under the influence of alcohol, drowned in an open well as he spent the night gathering bits of grain in the fields after the harvest. He was trying to get something for the family to eat.

Sasikala’s lucky stars brought her to the safety and loving environment of the School for the Blind in Amalarakkini, about 158 kilometres west of Chennai, run by the Brothers of the Sacred Heart Community. Ever since her pre-school days she got on well with her friends and teachers. She has blossomed into a graceful adolescent girl with a good academic record – and she is a talented dancer.

“Music is our life”

Sasikala is one of many girls and boys who stand to gain from the Richard Walsh Music Project, as music is the heart and soul of school life. “Music is our life. We listen to music when we get up, when we get ready to go to class, when we are back from class, when we are studying and when we go to sleep,” she tells me in her characteristic sing-song style.

She finds it hard to express her gratitude in words as this rare opportunity to learn music is an almost inconceivable blessing. The joy and thrill of just touching and feeling an instrument, strumming, drumming and making a joyful noise are so contagious that I am caught up in the excitement myself.

It is said that learning music develops spatial intelligence and behavioural skills and brings other educational benefits. Thanks to Friends of India, Sasikala has a chance to refine her talent for the performing arts. She will improve her capacity for self-expression, giving her greater confidence in life and helping her achieve her full potential.

And along the way, she and the other pupils at the school will give themselves and others a whole lot of pleasure.

Reporting by Praveena Clements