Tagore in Braille

Kolkata, May 10 (UNI) Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore is no longer the prerogative of the well sighted.

Now the visually impaired, who have so far remained untouched by him, can read Gurudev to be enlightened by his widely-acclaimed works.

Thanks to the computerised Braille transcription of ''Rabindra Rachnabali'' and ''Galpaguchcha'' by Media Lab Asia (MLAsia) and Webel Mediatronics Limited.

The former is a leading research laboratory under the Union Ministry of Communication and Information Technology and the latter is a wholly-owned subsidiary of West Bengal Electronics Industry Development Corporation Limited.

In a function, organised yesterday to mark the birth anniversary of the Nobel laureate, Minister of Information Technology Debesh Das handed over a Braille-transcripted copy of ''Rabindra Rachanabali'' to the representatives of the Central Library at Bidhannagar.

Besides, 40 institutes for blind people in the author's home state received a copy of ''Galpaguchcha'', the Braille-transcribed short story collection of Tagore.

Speaking on the occasion, Prof Das said, '' The technique should be transferred to open source software to bring down the cost of computerised transcription. Consorts should be made to utilise internet in Bengali language. '' The computerised Braille transcription system at present supports 13 languages, including English and Bengali.

The technology would be transferred to 40 institutions throughout India, which would cost nearly Rs five crore.

UNI