Bhai Gurmej Singh awarded for transcribing Guru Granth Sahib into Braille script

Patiala, 18 October, 2013-The department of Gurmat Sangeet of Punjabi University here has awarded Bibi Jasbir Kaur Khalsa fellowship to Bhai Gurmej Singh, Hazoori Ragi of Darbar Sahib, for translating the entire Sri Guru Granth Sahib into Braille script. Bhai Gurmej Singh, who himself is blind, had started transcription of the holy book of Sikhs into Braille script in 2000. It took him 12 years to accomplish the task. "I retired from my job in 1998 and started working on the project. However, I felt the need to transcribe Sri Guru Granth Sahib after I faced trouble over correct pronunciation of some words during my job. Hence I had decided to transcribe the holy book into Braille language, so that all blind people could read it," Bhai Gurmej Singh said.The transcribed version was produced in 18 volumes and had already been made available at five centres, including three blind home-cum-schools. Dr Gurnam Singh, head of department of Gurmat Sangeet, said the scholarship would be around Rs 96,000 and would be provided for one year.