MUMBAI: In a scene from Sai Paranjpye’s film ‘Sparsh’, a faculty member at a school for blind children, Shabana Azmi , demands to know of principal Naseeruddin Shah why the institute has not procured a single new book in Braille in the past three years. He, in turn, asks her to determine how many titles have been printed in that period.

Thirty years after the film’s release, little has changed. Academic textbooks, audio books and the odd newspaper in Hindi and Marathi are the few resources for visually impaired people. It is only now that a lifestyle magazine in English is becoming available to them.

‘White Print’, a new monthly out in May, will have sections on food, travel, gadgetry, even politics—everything that sighted people take for granted in the multiple publications that serve them. Where other periodicals have book reviews, this one will review audio books instead.

A 24-year-old former public relations executive, Upasana Makati, has developed the monthly by getting journalists to moonlight and sourcing commercials for a segment few advertisers are aware of. Readers are invited to contribute content. The monthly will be printed at the Braille press of the National Association for Blind (NAB) in Worli.

“It helps that NAB has a software to translate English into Braille. I do not have a team of writers or translators, given that it is a privately funded venture. We will find a way to get it to schools and colleges at subsidized rates,” Makati says.

NAB director Raman Shankar says printing costs are particularly high. “Paper is very expensive. Ours is the only big press in Maharashtra that publishes textbooks, although smaller ones in schools do print question papers. Reading options for the visually impaired are severely restricted owing to high input costs. Leave aside children, it is the adults who are bored for lack of options,” he says.

Secretary of NAB Joaquim Rapose says they have also printed the Quran in Braille. “A Hindi magazine named Deepshikha is popular. Yet, it is our talking books centre that is the star of the show. Here we have recorded 7,000 titles in 10 languages that visually impaired people to listen to. In fact Sai Paranjpye is actively associated with us,” he says.