you know, remember, i said we went to gurdwara friday night, saturday night, and all day sunday. they didn't want people to be staring at them. so i did spend a good portion of my childhood trying to, you know, not let people know. so i almost had two lives, where in the gurdwara you were always trying to hide it, and in school you were, of course, labeled as the one that had the special needs. >> hinojosa: what was that like for you, to know that, you know, this is who you are, and yet you weren't really being allowed to kind of choose how you dealt with the fact that you were blind? >> well, it was certainly difficult to pretend. i mean, it was certainly, at times, stressful. >> hinojosa: i can't even imagine what that is like. >> well, you do start to develop some interesting tricks, which actually have helped me over the years. >> hinojosa: for example? >> well, now i can't get away with them, but for example, if i would drop something i would pretend as if i didn't hear it, so that somebody else would notice and pick it up. >> hinojosa: oh. >> and i did pick up a lot of tric