Blog by Vanshika kumari Digital Content Writer | Digital Diary

Rush hour  crowds jostly for position on the  underground train platform. A slight girl, looking younger  than her seventeen  years  , was nervous  yet excited  as she felt  the vibrations of the  approaching train. It was her  first day  at the  prestigious royal academy of music ?  in  London and daunting enough  for any  teenaged fresh a Scottish  farm . But this  aspiring musician  faced  a bigger  challenge  then  most : she was profoundly deaf.

Evelyn  Glennie 's loss of hearing had been gradual . her mother remembers noticing something was wrong when the eight - year -old Evelyn was waiting to play the piono. ''They called her name and she did't move . Isuddenly rewlised she hadn't heardv ,''says Isabel Glennie. for quite awhile Evelyn managed to conceal her growing deafness fromfriends and teachers .But by the time she was elevenher marks had deteriorated and her headmistress urged her parents to take her to a specialist .It was then discovred that her hearing was severely impairedas a result of gradual never damage .They were advised that she should be fitted with hearing aids and sent to a school for the  deaf.'' everything  suddenly looked black,'' says Evelyn. 

But Evelyn was not going to give up .she was determined to lead a normal life and pursue  her interest in music One day she noticed a girl playing a xylophone and decided that she wanted to play it too.Most of the teachers  discouraged jer but percussionist ron forbes spotted her potential.He began by tuning two large drums to different nots. ''Don't listen through you ears,'' he would say '' try to sense it some other way .'' says Evelyn,'' Suddenly I realised Icould feel The higher drum from the waist up and the lower one from the waist down .'' Forbes repeated the exercise , and soon evelyn dis covred that she could sense it some other ways ,''says Evelyn,''Suddenly I Realised I could feel the higher drum the waistup and the lower one from,'' suddenly I realised Icould feel the higher drum from the waist up and the lower one from the waist  down .''forbes repeated the exercise , and the waist up and the lower one from the waist down .''Forbes reseated the exercise ,and soon Evelyn discovedred that she could sense certain nots in diffrent parts of herv body .''Ihad learnt to open my mind and body to sounds and vibration .''the rest was sheer determination and hard .work

Shenever looked back from that point onwards . She toured the united kingdom with a youth orchestra and by time she was sixteen , she had decided to make music her life . She auditioned for the royal academy of music and scored one of the highest make in the history of the academy . she gradually moved from orchestral work to Solo performances. At the end of her three- year course ,she had captured most of the top awards.

 And for all this ,Evelyn Won't accept any hint of hetroic achievement .''If you work hard and know where you are going ,You'll get there .'' And she got right to the top ,the world 's most sought - after multipercussionist with a mastery of some thousand instruments, and hectic  international schedule.

Wind, come softly ​​​​​​. 

Don't  break the shutters of the windows. 

Don't scatter the papers.

Don't throw down the books on the shelf.

There, looks what  you did - you threw  them all down. 

You  tore the pages of the books ?. 

You brought rain ? again. 

You' re very clever at poking fun at ​​​​weaklings.

frail crumbling house ?  ,crumbling doors ?  crumbling rafters.

crumbling wood,  crumbling  bodies  crumbling lives crumbling hearts .

the  wind god​​​ winnows and crushes them  all.

he won't  do what  you tell him. 

so,came ,let's  build strong  homes,

Let's joint  the  doors firmly. 

Practise to firm the  body. 

Make the  heart steadfast. ​​​​ 

Do  this, and the wind will be friends with us.

The wind blows out  weak fires.

He makes strong fires roar and flourish. 

 His friendship is  good. 

We praise him  every day. 

Thank you so much ? 

Margie even wrote about it that in her dairy . on the page headed  17May 2157 she wrote ,''today tommy Found a real book ; ''

it was a very old book . margie 's grandfather once said that when he was a little boy his grandfather told him that there was a time when all stories were printed on paper .

They turned the page , which were yellow and crikly ,and it was awfully funny to read words that stood still  instead of moving the way they were supposed to - on a sceen ,you know . And then when they turned back to the page before ,it had the same words on it  that it had had when they read it the first time. 

''Gee,'' said tommy , '' what a waste . when yoyu' re through with the book , you just throv it away , i guess . our television screen must have had a million book on it and  it 's good plenty more . I would n't throw it away .''

She said ,''where did you find it ?'' 

''In my house ,'' he pointed without  looking , because he was busy reading .''in the attic.''

''what 's it  about  ?''

''school .''

marhie was scornful .''school?what 's there to write about school ? I hate school .'' margie always  hateed school , but now she hated  it more than ever . The mechanical teacher hadc been giving her test after test in geography and she had been doing worse and wurse until her mother had shaken her head sorrowfully and sent for the country Inspector .

He was around little man with a red face and a whole box of tools with dials and wires. he smiled at margie and gave her an apple , then took the teacher apart . margie had hoped he would ' know how to put it together again  , but he  knew how  all right  ✅️  , and,  after an hour  or so  ,there  it was again,  large and  black  and  ugly,  with a  big  screen on  which all the  lessons  were shown and  the  questions  were asked  were  asked  . That  was n' t so bad  the  part margie  hated most was the  slot where she. Had  to  put  homework  and  test papers.  She  always  had to write ✍️  them out in  a punch  ?  code  they  made her learn when  she  was six years old, and  the  mechanical  teacher  calculated  the  marks in no time. 

       To the little girl he was a figure to be feared and  avoided. every morning before going to work he came into her room and gave her a casual  kiss, to which she responded  with ''Goodbya,father''. And oh , there was a glad sense of relief when she  heard the noise of  the  carriage  growing  fainter and fainter down the long road in the evening when he came home she stood near thestaircase and heard his loud voice in the hall. "Bring my tea into the drawing-room ..... Hasn't the paper comr yet? Mother, go and see if my paper's out there-and bring me my slippers."  

"Kezia,"mother  would call to her,"if you're a good girl you can come down and take off father's boots ." Slowly the  girl  would slip down the stairs,  more Slowly  still across  the hall, and push  open the  drawing-room  door  .by that time he  had  his spectacles on and looked  at  her over them in a way that  was terrifying to the little girl. " well, Kezia, hurty up  and  pull off these boots and take them outside have you been  a good  girl today?" " I have d- d don't  know, father. " ''you d-d don't know? If you stutter like that  mother will have to take  you to the doctor. " 

She  never stuttered with other people‐ had quite  given it up- but  only with father, because then she was trying so was trying so hard to say the words properly. " what 's the matter? What are you looking so wretched about? Mother,  I wish you taught this  child not to appear on the ​​​​the  bring of suicide...here, Kezia,  carry my teacup back to the table carefully. " he was so big- his hands and  his neck, especially his mouth when he yawned. Thinking about  him alone was like Thinking about  a giant. 

On Sunday afternoons grandmother sent her down to the  drawing-room to  have a " nice talk with father  and mother " .but little girl always found  mother  reading  and father stretched out on the  sofa,  his  handkerchief on his  face,  his  feet on one of the best cushions , sleeping soundly  and snoring.  She sat on a stood, gravely watched  him until he work  and stretched, and  asked  the time- then looked at her ." Don't stare so, Kezia. You look like  a little brown owl ." One day  when she was kept indoors with  a cold, her grandmother  told her  that  father's birthday was next week, and  suggested she  should make  him a pin- cushion for a gift  out of a beautiful piece of yellow sulk.

Laborious with a double cotton, the little girl stitched there sides . But Wath to fill it with? That was the question.  The  grandmother was  out in the garden,  and she wandered into  mother 's bedroom to look for  scraps .on the bed- table she  discovered a great many sheets of fine paper,  gathered them up, tore them into tiny pieces ,and stuffed  her case,then sewed up the fourth side. That night there was  a hue and  cry in  the house .father's  great speech for the  port authority had been  lost . Rooms were searched; servents questioned finally mother  came  into  Kezia ' s room.  " Kezia, I  suppose you  didn't see some papers on 

A table  in our  room?" " oh yes, " She said,  " I  tore them up for my  surprise." " what!" Screamed  mother.  " come  straight  down  to the dining - room this instant. " 

And  she  was dragged down to where father  was pacing  to and from, hands behind his back.  " well?" " n- n- no" ,she whispered ." Mother,  go up to her room and fetch down the  damned thing - see that the child 's put to bed this  instant." 

Crying  too much to  explain,  she lay in the  shadowed room  watching  the  evening light make a sad little  pattern on the floor.  Then father came into the room with a  ruler in his hands  . " I am going to beat you for  this, " he ordered,  " and  hold out your  hand.  You must be taught once and for  all not to touch  what  does not belong to you." But it was for your  b- b birthday. " down came  the  ruler on  her little, pink palms.

Hours later, when grandmother had wrapped her in a shawl and rocked her in the . rocking -chair , the child clung to her soft body .''what did god make father for''she sobbed ''Here's a clean hanky , darling . blow your nose . go to sleep , pet ; you 'll forget  all about it in the morning. Itried to explain to father but he was too upset to listen to night .'' but the child never forget .next time she saw him she quikly  put both hands behind her back and a red colour flew into her cheeks.

The macdonalds lived next door . they had five children .looking thorough a gap in the fence the little girl saw the plaing 'tag'in the evening .the father with the body , meo, on his shoulders ,two little girls hanging on to his coat pockets ran round round the flower-beds , shaking with laughter . once shev saw the boys turn the hose on him - and he tride to catch them laughing all the time . then it was she decided  there were different sorts of father . suddenly ,one day , mother became ill, and she and grandmother went to hospital . the little girl was left alone in the house with alice , the cook . that wsa all right in the daytime , but while alice was putting her to bed she grew suddenly afraid. 

" what ll I  do if I have a  nightmare ?" She asked. " I  often  have  nightmares and then  grannie takes me into her bed - I  can't stay in the dark- it all gets 'whispery' ... " " you just go to sleep  , child," said alice  , pulling  of her socks , " and  don't  you scream and  wake your poor  pa ." But  the same  old  nightmare  came  - the butcher  with  a knife  and  a rope, who came nearer and  nearer , smiling  that dreadful  smile , while  she  could  not  move ,could  only stand still, Crying out ," grandma! Grandma  !" She  woke shivering  to see father  beside her  bed ,a candle in his hand ." What 's the matter?" He said. 

" oh,  a butcher- a knife  - I  want grannie. " he  blew out the candle,  bent down  and  caught  up  the child in his arms , carrying  her  along the passage to the  big  bedroom.  A newspaper  ?  was on the bed  .he put  away  the paper,  then carefully tucked up  the child.  He lay down  beside  her  . Half  asleep still with  the  butcher ' s smile  all about  her it seemed , she  crept  close  to him  , snuggled her  head under his  arm , tightly to his  shirt.  Then the  dark did not  matter; she lay still. " here ,  rub your feet against  my  legs  and  get  them warm, " said  father. 

Tired  out , he slept  before the little girl.  A funny  feeling  came  over her  .poor  father, not  so big,  after  all - and  with no one to look  after  him. He was harder than  grandmother   but  it  was  a nice  hardness  . And every day  he had  to work  and  was too tired  to be  a Mr  macdon and...she  had torn up  all his beautiful  writing  ...she  stirred  suddenly , and  sighed ​​​​​​. " what  's the  matter?" Asked her  father " another  deam ?" " oh, " said  the  little girl  ?, " my head 's on  your heart.  I can  hear it  going . What  a big heart  you' ve got ,father  dear.

Thank you so much ?