Born on April 4, 1994, in the beautiful hill-station Nainital in the state of Uttarakhand, Saurabh Pant is a man of many gifts. Widely known as an author, he is also a poet, blogger, quizzer, sports analyst, and research analyst.
As an author, some of his internationally published works are:
- Safron- The Blog's link:
- International book
- 1st international poetry collection: Triple Jimmy and A Glowing World
- 2nd International Poetry Collection: BurningAsia-The-Present-Image
- 3rd International Poetry collection: Warming Boom
- 4th International poetry collection: Feelings... Not Responding
- 5th International book : Spear fly
Saurabh also hosts a blog named saffron that has thousands of viewers. As a poet, he made the nation proud when he contributed his poems to International Anthologies namely-- 8th son and New Dawn. Inspiration to all of us, he also led the team of visually impaired persons in international quizzes as a captain.
He is also an aggressive blogger and contributes his writing on various web portals such as Yo alfaaz, Indian Travel Blogs and story mirror apart from maintaining his own blog.
Beginning of the dream
Being a VI he did not let his ailment stop him from achieving great heights and recognition on the national and international level.
In his early childhood days, Saurabh was a slow responder and have had his own fair share of challenges. He took longer than most of the infants to stand on his feet and at the age of 3 was faced with Pneumonia. By the time he reached the age of 5, he realized that his sight would not stay with him forever. But he was a strong heart from the beginning and never felt bad about the fact of losing his sight.
Early efforts
He had his early education in his father's friend school and kept studying whole-heartedly till he completely lost his sight in class 6. After long 6 years of treatment, he was told by the experts that he will not be able to see ever again. Most of us would shatter with such an incident in our life but, Saurabh has the will of stone and he accepted his blindness and was more determined than ever to bring the change in his life and went to Haldwani where he learned the braille script in the regional center of NBA.
After learning braille, he got admission in Model School, NIVH and this was the start of Saurabh's journey as a writer. Aspired to become a writer, he took part in various writing competitions in school and other related activities. He also participated in various quiz contests in Punjab along with the writing and debate tours in Lucknow.
My first book and then the passion continues
In 2014, while he was studying at Kirori Mal College, he planned on writing a book and contacted Power Publications in Kolkata. Mr. Pinaki and his team accepted Saurabh as a VI writer.
Free web impact
Writing and publishing one book was not enough to quench the thirst of Saurabh as a writer and soon he came in contact with the owners of the web portal named 'YO Alfazz' namely Gurjyot bro and Priya Batra. He decided to contribute to the platform and soon find himself a great pool of readers. Inspired by this, he found his own story portal known as Story Mirror.
In Jan 2015 he was assured the membership of the Asiatic society of Mumbai and with their support, he traveled few Asian countries for the seminars. In September 2015, in Manila, he became acquainted with the Jimmy Boom Semtex who further led Sourabh into his writing ventures. In June 2016, Saurabh's entry into international writing was assured and then Jimmy and Saurabh decided to co-author a book named 'Triple Jimmy and a Glowing world', which was just the beginning. The second e-book published was 'Burning Asia' which went to become successful and was published twice in its paperback edition.
On August 9, 2017, Saurabh published a co-authored romantic poem collection named Feelings. As the end of 2017 approached, Saurabh one more book was published by the name of Saurabh 'Spear Fly'.
Interested in quizzes from school time, Saurabh participated in many quizzes during the college days but lost many a times. In his second year, in a quiz competition in Gurugram he came 2nd and was given a chance to travel Goa but couldn’t do so because of VI challenge. However; his quiz instincts were recognized by the quiz Federation and in September 2015 he led his VI fellows to international quiz competition in Glasgow. In November 2015, in Helsinki, the team became the champion of the winter quiz tournament.
In 2016, the team won the International Sports Quiz hosted In India and in 2017 they won the Indian Birds Quiz in Tokyo and continued the same momentum in Auckland in the Asia Pacific Nature Quiz.
According to Saurabh whether VI or not, everyone in this world faces his fair share of challenges and every human has to go through pain in order to achieve his dreams and therefore, there is no need to feel shame and focus the energies to the best of your advantage.
Roles to play
When it comes to give examples or set any ideology, I never had any interests to force my patterns or tactics to other VI who are my juniors and I just advised them on their difficult times so they should understand the matter at hand and can rely on themselves rather than becoming dependent on other groups or agencies for so called 'helping hand' by all means.
I always had the belief that due to the high percentage of academic scholarship in my family with all being part of the technological world It would be difficult job to fit in but being an author has lifted my hope and I also have a role to play in my parents’ life and family but all the same I never said them to be more expectant that would be surely a big task to perform.
Being a visually impaired I have one word to say to everyone who is like me: No world is possible without any challenges or problems, Every human has to go through a phase of pain and perfection is beyond being human as Pain will come and it is essential. Therefore do not feel ashamed of what you are and focus your energies to your best advantage, as there is always a world beyond the likely existing vision.
It is essential that they understand the same and focus test and the more scholars rise from my fraternity the merrier I would be by their progress and I have realised great signs of progress as digital mediums have given me and my community a great chance of becoming differently able indeed.
Difficult times
Considering the fact that acceptance has to be the biggest challenge It was difficult at first in my primary days when Me and my father continued to travel all Indian places for my Eye concerns and even had local mythological concerns 'Jagars' trying to locate the main cause of problem, but once I accepted the challenge of being a blind and doing best for myself That first difficulty did solve and My father is always supporting me as back up and gives me the confidence and the same is with my mother and younger brother as well.
Apart from that in may 2015 I did sickened to a love trap and in that process I broke my thigh in my college hostel and had to operate my femur bone in Sant Permanand hospital in civil lines, Delhi and for which lot of gossip had to happen that why such movement did occur and it was difficult to get away from the cloud of action and getting back on my feet.
All the same from counting other difficulties people always wonder how I manage quizzing and other stuff together with my writing work and I have no time to spare for them to search excuses and I continue to work. In such way I am thankful to all who support and hence in my difficult times my family had been my power which is the great feeling indeed.
Acknowledgements
There are many people I would like to acknowledge: First of all Brain Buxa for taking the time and accepting the details to work upon for the nice interview. Secondly I am thankful to my parents for all the hard work and courage involved. I would like to express my gratitude to Pinaki sir and Nick sir for writing feedback; Thanks to Lulu press, US, Thanks to Priya verma who has been the leading cartoonist of my books; Gratitude to Pallavi Roy for interviews in past and thank you to my readers around 150 countries in world.
May you all continue to read and inspire a blind person like me to type more and create new literature. Thanks everyone...