My Life-Fifteen Years Ago..

My childhood has not exactly been a cakewalk for me and my parents.It was a bolt out of the blue when I was identified as "hearing challenged" by a doctor at the age of 2 years.It was one of the most darkest hours for my parents.Still they did not give up hope. Through a friend, they took me to Bangalore.There only, they first heard of the school "Balavidyalaya-The School for Young Deaf Children" in Chennai.

Without a moments hesitation,my parents packed their bags and took me to Chennai.My dad did not have a job then. They first enrolled me in the school.The then headmistress and principal, Ms Saraswati Narayanaswamy and Ms Rajalakshmi respectively, were very kind hearted and also strict at the same time.They agreed to put me in the school for free.I joined Balavidyalaya in June 1990.

I was trained in Balavidyalana for five years. It was a struggle and my parents worked very hard with me. The way of training in Balavidyalaya is different from other normal schools. They taught us words directly without introducing us to the alphabets. They made us use the best of our hearing aids.The teachers were very strict but also warm and loving. I had three more classmates who were trained along with me. My mother used to constantly discuss with their parents during the school hours. My parents also used to take me out to the beach every weekend so as to facilitate my training.Everyday they used to make me sit with them and make me learn all the words.She used to keep dictations for me.

It was for my sake only that my mother learnt English.Since, it is difficult for a hearimg challenged person to learn two languages at the same time, they decided to keep only one language for me-English.

Most people, whenever they talk to a hearing challenged person, think that there is a problem with his or her voice and they assume it to be more of a problem with the vocal cords rather than hearing. This notion is wrong. In reality and actuality, every child first starts hearing sounds from quite a young age and then starts to reproduce those sounds. This is how his or her speech develops. But if there is no proper hearing, then the child will not be able to hear correctly.As a result, the speech is also not developed properly. Thus, it is very crucial and of utmost importance that the hearingg problem should be identified in a child as early as possible from birth onwards.

Another most common problem is learning a second language. A hearing challenged person, mostly depends on the combination of lip movements and hearing through aids, to hear and talk to others. If that person depends on hearing alone, then they miss out many things. As a result, while trying to depend on audio devices like TV, tape recorder and telephone, the person misses out a lot. Unlike normal children who can pick up a new language easily by being exposed to hearing it daily, it is not the case with hearing challenged persons.Thia ia the reason why we find it difficult to pick up a mew language easily.The most annoying part is, when people ask us why we do not know our mother tongue and misjudge our knowledge for the English language alone as arrogance.


The five years of hardwork paid off. In June 1995 we moved back to Hyderabad where I was admitted directly into the second standard of Sherwood Public School. ICSE/ISC. It was the beginning of another journey of my life. I remained in the school for 11 years till 12th. I passed out of the school in April 2006.

After completing my schooling, I joined St Francis Degree College for Women,Hyderabad and enrolled in the B.Sc BZC course.In the second year of B.Sc, I started attending coaching classes for JAM. I gave the JAM entrance in May 2009 and cleared the entrance test. I joined IIT in August 2009,in the M.Sc Chemistry course. It was a new phase of my life since I would be staying away from home for the first time. At first I was alarmed that most of my classmates were Bengali's and I had doubts as to whether I would get along with them. But soon, my fears were put to rest for I started gradually warming to them.

These two years at IIT have been a great learning experience. I feel so lucky to be working with esteemed professors and brilliant students. It is less than a month before I leave IIT. But like every phase of life, this too shall pass and before I know I'll be busy elsewhere,but the memories of IIT will always remain with me.

My life has been full of twists and turns but it has taught me many things along the way.Among the most important things it has taught me, is to have faith in myself and God.If ones think one can do anything and if they have the will power, nothing can stop them from achieving their ambitions.