Sachin Porwal
It’s been five years since he lost his vision and started a “new” life. As he says, “time really flies and I am 17 now. I have transformed from a boy who liked to play and watch cartoons all day, who wouldn’t talk to anyone, to a guy who goes on the stage, cracks funny jokes and creates waves of laughter!”
It’s been quite a journey for Sachin and his hunger to achieve more is insatiable. He is in 10th standard and already creating ripples of laughter across the city of lakes, Udaipur. One of the very few visually impaired standup comedians in India, Sachin dreams of becoming a corporate lawyer and open his own legal firm in the future. He wants to do BA+LLB course from a good law school in India after his schooling. An ideal life for him would be to work on weekdays and do standup comedy over weekends.
When he lost his vision because of retinitis pigmentosa- a group of rare, genetic disorders that involve a breakdown and loss of cells in the retina, he got very depressed in life. His friends supported him and made him realize that he had lost his physical vision but he still had a clear sight of his dreams which most people in today’s world lack. At this juncture of life, the first thing he did was, learnt Braille and learnt how to use screen readers in phones and laptops. He also started practicing movement using a stick to improve his mobility. Special school really supported him in learning all that was needed to be an independent visually impaired person. He made more and more friends and has never looked back since then. Sachin has been doing standup comedy for last two years and draws maximum satisfaction from making people laugh.
His next challenge is to improve on his mobility so that he can travel to different cities across India and the world to spread his message of laughter!