Please read inspirational life story of Vijay Krishnamani (born with hearing loss) who went to get good higher education from the best of institutions and is now employed in a reputed corporate in Singapore. (Just goes to show ho dearly intervention and good support from family can lay foundation for a good career for people with severe hearing disability) This is an old article posted almost 7 years ago... Hi… My name is Vijay Krishnamani. I was born with hearing loss. No one knows how it happened. But know what… it doesnt really matter what caused it. What matters more is how I overcame it. I was born in an era when awareness about hearing loss was still in its infantile stage. My parents were extremely shocked to hear about my hearing loss. To my great fortune and everlasting gratitude to them, they chose to take up the challenge and do something about it rather than just sit down and leave me to fate. This was when I was around 1 ½ years old. Yes, hearing loss can be diagnosed very early. Oh it was a struggle. I can tell you. My parents had to sacrifice a lot of their time in order to focus on my upbringing. They also had to spend less time on my elder brother who proved to be a rock. I still dont understand how he took it so sportingly when I read about so many other kids going awry due to less attention by their parents. Coming back to my story… for the first 10 years from the time I was diagnosed with hearing loss, my life went according to a disciplined schedule which focused on making me learn how to speak, read and write English. Because of the level of my hearing loss, it was also decided early on that I would focus on learning only one language i.e., English. My day started at 5:30 Am and concluded at 8 Pm. In between, I was always learning. If I was not in school, I was busy with my speech and language development classes wherein I was taught the intricacies of communication, listening and writing. Plus I also took up a lot of extra-curricular activities like learning how to paint and play the synthesizer (an electronic version of the piano). My Father and Mother in their moments of recollection talk with pride about a few instances which when looked at in retrospect reflect how I moved from one stage to the next… 1. It took six months for me to say my first word Papa. Thereafter, nothing held me back. Every newly-learnt word was an excuse to learn one more. Every newly-learnt sentence was an excuse to learn one more and so on… 2. I was refused admission into various schools because of the lack of awareness about hearing loss with one school principal even going to the extent of suggesting that I go to a mental school. Thanks to certain people to whom I will forever be indebted, I was given admission into a school in New Delhi . Again, a condition was laid that my continuity in the school was subject to my performance in the first year itself i.e., in LKG. At the end of the year, thanks to my parents hard work coupled with great cooperation from the teachers and other important people, I came among the top 5 in the class of 40 students. After this, my principal never had doubts about me 3. My parents werent sure about whether I would complete the full quota of 12 years. So when I kept passing year after year, their hopes just grew. When I finished 5th class, which is the highest class in junior school, they were like - Maybe Vijay will pass the 10th too… Let us continue our efforts…! 4. In the 5th class, my Mother came to school to pick me up and found me standing out of the class looking very remorseful. When she found out the reason, she was more thrilled than unhappy. The reason being I had been talking too much in the class. Isnt that weird? 5. When I was about 11, I gave my first stage performance playing two Tamil film songs on the synthesizer in front of about 2500 people. I also gave around 7 more performances over the subsequent years playing Hindi film songs ranging from old to modern music. This, when I dont know Tamil and Hindi. Since I couldnt understand the tone, I just learnt everything else about the song and it came up very well. 6. Passing my 10th and 12th was a big event needless to say… And I did very well on both occasions. I joined college for my graduation and post-graduation purely on merit. Doing my graduation and post-graduation with good results only encouraged them to think bigger for me. My dissertation semester for MCA was spent as a trainee in Nucleus Software Exports Ltd., Noida. When I got the job, my parents were happy beyond belief. 7. I spent 1 ½ years in a company in New Delhi (my hometown) before moving on to Hyderabad to join another company. Shifting states and moving away from the cocoon of home was a real big thing for my family. For example, my parents were worried about how I would keep in touch since they are a bit technologically-challenged in terms of email and I am unable to hear on the phone. Then SMS came along... So I spent 2 years being an independent individual. This was certainly something that my parents had anticipated in my initial years. 8. Now my parents, friends and colleagues (and everyone else in the telephone directory) tell me to shut up because I talk too much. Along the way, I have definitely faced a lot of bumps. But every time I always just stood up, learnt from my failures and walked on. That is how we live life. In a sense, one never fails but always learns. It has been a rather conscious decision to work in the Corporate sector since it is one field where Hearing Impaired people for the most part find it difficult to work in. It helps to have a conducive environment to work in. My managers have been most cooperative and treat me as they would any other person with no preferential treatment. Plus, certain facilities like Whatsapp, SMS, Internet/Intranet Chat and Email have made communication a non-issue. I will conclude by saying that nothing is ever impossible. We need to have complete faith in what we do.
Posted on: Mon, 18 Nov 2013 04:02:02 +0000
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