even though kashinath mahajan lost his eyesight while still in school the poet inside him continued to inspire him to struggle against destiny mahajan learned braille became a successful teacher and went on to compose many poems over the years his recent collection of motivational poems drushti palyad beyond eyesight is out for release now in an interaction with tois chaitanya deshpande the artist shares his inspiring journey against all oddswhen did you start writing poems i think i was in class v when i penned down my first poem being a bright student i was selected for the coveted scholarship at vidyaniketan school and came to nashik from my hometown in jalgaon district to complete education i wrote my first official poem on my teacher and mentor madhukarrao chaudhari it was then that my journey with poetry started but as fate would have it my eyesight started getting affected with some undiagnosed problem somehow i managed to complete my matriculation from a regular school before i lost my vision completely due to retina distractionhow difficult was it to learn braille and touch therapy its comparatively easier for people who are blind from birth to learn braille and other problind therapies i on the other hand struggled to learn it since i lost my eyesight at the age of 16 so overcome with grief was my father that he suffered a heart attack and passed away but i decided to find a way through these difficulties i learned braille got a writer and completed graduation in political science i continued to write poems on different issues right from poverty to politicsalthough have been a successful teacher and a reputed poet were you ever treated like an inferiori was unlucky to lose my eyesight but was blessed with good people around after graduation i completed a course of special teacher and got a government job my wife rekha is the backbone of my career i won several awards for being the ideal teacher and many more for my poems i never considered myself inferior to anybody and hence always received respect from others being a nashikite i was invited to present my poem at the marathi literary summit held in city in 2005 along with reputed poets from across the statetell us about nashiks role in shaping your careeri got my education reputation job and my life partner here in nashik i worked at solapur pune and sindhudurg as well but my most memorable tenure has been in nashik its my hometown as well as that of my favourite poem kusumagrajyour fourth book is ready for release how does it feel im blessed pratima publishing house from pune took the initiative to publish this book it talks about the things i could see beyond eyesight well known personalities in the field of marathi literature would be gathering at kusumagraj memorial for the release of this book on june 1what message would you like to give to people especially those who are