At the Connexions public relations office in Delhi, a briefing session is in progress. Chief executive Nina Sharma is discussing a new account with her colleagues Shruti, Shaaz and Siddharth. While Shaaz and Shruti take copious notes, Siddharth records everything on his tape recorder. Any brochures that are passed around are read aloud by one of the girls. Questions are asked and answered. It's only when the meeting adjourns and Siddharth leans on Shruti's arm, that you realise he cannot see.
"I am perhaps the only blind person employed in a public relations firm," says Siddharth Sharma, business development executive. "And, the funny part is," he grins, "that there are times when the clients I meet do not realise that I cannot see!"
With the help of a speech synthesiser on his computer, a dictaphone, and helpful colleagues, Siddharth is proving that lack of sight is no handicap in a normal corporate career. "His communication skills are so strong that we have never felt he is handicapped," says Sharma.
At 25, with a promising career in marketing, and a marriage fixed, life was cruising fine for Siddharth until he rammed his mobike into a police barricade. He lost his eyes, the marria