A Blind Boy and An Unseeing Woman

Early this morning as I was stepping onto the train carriage from the MRT platform, I felt that the person behind me was following too closely with physical contact with my back and my slung shoulder bag. It wasn't a pickpocket, though--it was a blind boy toting his backpack and wearing the sky-blue uniform that identified him to me as a special student of the College of Saint Benilde. We eventually sat beside each other after the crowds cleared. I noted that the train operator was not announcing train stops on the PA system. When the doors opened at Magallanes Station the boy suddenly asked his female guide, "This is Magallanes Station, isn't it?" I was impressed with his focus, his memory, and his prodigious use of his powers of observation.

Later, on the LRT, when I alit at United Nations Station, a woman followed me and asked the guard at the doors, "This is Pedro Gil Station, isn't it?" The guard informed her that we'd already passed Pedro Gil Station one station back. She'd not been paying attention to the train operator, who had been announcing train stops on the PA system all along. The woman was dismayed and said that she would have to walk all the way back to Pedro Gil Station.

These were two, short incidents that occurred on the train system on my way to work this morning. But, they proved that all of us are disabled in some way or other. And, sometimes, those who cannot see, can see, and those who can see, cannot see.