Road to 2012 - Setting out - Rlsb project - Mahendra rastogi

My name is Mahendra Rastogi. Originally I’m from India. I came to England just 16 months ago. Ever since I came here, I have been living in this borough itself. It’s a wonderful place to live in. It has got good open roads for the mobility of the blind people and I like it more because I’m a completely blind person and I feel quite comfortable in moving around the places in the vicinity of my house. And this borough itself has got very good gardens, good museums and so many places for outings. That’s why we are living here and enjoying our stay. My favourite areas to visit in this borough are many. Foremost and the best one is the library at Poplar Ideas Store. Then this resource centre where I’m here now. And of course the St. John McDougal Gardens, London Museum... there are very many places which we always go and we love to visit again and again. It has been a very short period for us to live here but within that period itself what I liked the most was the visit to Olympic Park. And I was so happy to see it having all the accessibility features for the persons with visual impairment. It’s a rare of the rarest opportunities for any city to host the Olympics. It’s wonderful that the eastern part of London has been given the opportunity to host most of the Olympics. So we feel proud to be a part of east London. I would definitely love to go to visit the sports and see them in the crowds rather than listen to the commentary at home. And the best sport that I would like to see happening would be hockey. Because hockey is being played in most countries of the world. And India has been the champion of hockey for so many years. Then I would love to see football, the tennis. So I would like to be the part of the crowd watching and enjoying the Games. I play a few indoor games. The most favourite indoor game is chess. And I play cards, many games of the cards. Outdoor games now I no longer play but earlier I used to participate in some athletics. I listen to the commentaries of many games- especially cricket, hockey, football and lawn tennis. In my family of course, my wife is the most inspirational person for me. She is also completely blind but in fact both of us keep inspiring each other. In the borough there are quite a few people. The person who has helped me the most in rehabilitating within this borough is John Osborne- an officer with the Sensory Impairment Team, and Carol Excell who is a Mobility Advisor and teaches mobility. And of course the persons in DITO, DAN and a few other social organisations. They’re all a source of inspiration for me. I would like to see this borough to be more disabled- friendly after the Games are over. That places are more accessible. They have sound-guided visits to various places especially the tourist places. I would love to see that there are some employment opportunities for the disabled persons also after the Games are over. Because what I feel is that persons with disabilities, and especially blind persons, they need more job and employment rather than only living on the benefits.