Wedding bells: So, love really is blind...

The couple fell in love at the blind centre and found each other years later.

MULTAN:

The Ibn Qasim Blind Centre was recently host to the wedding of two of its alumni Sajid and Surrayah.

The couple told reporters that they had studied at the blind centre together and had fallen in love nearly six years ago. Sajid, who is a resident of Multan, said that he was blind by birth. “Many people in my family are blind and they left me at the centre when I was a baby,” he said. Sajid has been living at the Ibn Qasim Blind Centre his whole life and said that this was the only home he knew.

“I learned to read and write Braille here and eventually this place offered to complete my education,” he said.

Sajid said that he met Surrayah in 1995 at the centre. “We both studied here and she was one of my class fellows. We became friends when we were children and I met her again after I graduated from here and got a job in an office,” he said.

Sajid told reporters that he was speaking to clients several months ago when he discovered that one of the people sitting opposite him was Surrayah. “It was wonderful to catch up and over the next months we fell in love,” he said. “I have known him since I was a child but we had lost touch. When we met again we both eventually decided we wanted to get married and our parents supported us,” Surrayah said.

Sajid’s class fellow at the blind centre, Qasim Khan Karmani said that he had been rooting for the couple from the beginning. “We were all friends when we were kids. When they decided to get married I convinced them they should have the ceremony at the centre because that is what brought them together,” he said.

The blind centre which not only provides schooling for blind children but also offers housing, counselling and other facilities has been frequently visited by Sajid and Surryah in the past few years.

“We both used to visit quite often to help out at the centre and when we asked the staff if they would be willing to let us get married there they were delighted,” Surrayah said.

The couples wedding ceremony was organised at the Ibn Qasim centre on May 17 and all the students at the centre as well as the bride’s family attended the event. “I feel really happy this day. Sajid was raised here and this is his home so we are very happy that we can host this wedding” said Ibn Qasim centre administrator Malik Atta.

Four members of Sajid’s family are blind and three members of Surrayah’s family are also visually impaired. “Doctors have told both of us that our condition is genetic and a result of a congenital defect. I feel like Sajid is one of the few people who truly understands me and I am very happy to finally be married to him,” Surrayah said.

Sajid has rented house for his family and appealed to the Pakistani government that he and his wife be given permanent jobs from the government quota reserved for blind people.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 21^st, 2011.