It
is said that some connects that you make become lifelong relationships that go
beyond the unexplainable. Many many years ago, I had read an advertisement and learnt
the art of voiceovers with Darrpan Mehta, a
leading and respected Voice Actor at Sugar Mediaz. Thereafter, I truly have lost
count of the years or the many times, I have shared happy moments with Darrpan,
Janvi and Kiran.. and this time was no different. A phone call from them is all
it takes to get me scuttling to their office with a happy smile.
You
may wonder why? Simple. What I love about Darrpan (apart from the friendship)
and Sugar Mediaz is that despite the traditional role of being an audio content production house, they
choose unique and different activities as part of their social responsibility
initiatives, such as *surprise X'mas party for 150 kids of Prayas Street
School, *Buy a Diary-send a child to school project,
*campaign to collect books, stationery and musical instruments for prisoners of
Indore Jail and my favourite of all 300 paper
bags containing packets of wheat flour, sugar, rice and pulses sent to family&friends
in Diwali (including me) with a request to pass
it on to less privileged people.
The
initiative this time!!! An afternoon to celebrate Teachers day with fun and
games to create a bond between teachers and children at *Mookdhwani School* for
hearing impaired children.... and as always, I was ready to be a part of their
initiative.
September 6th, 12.30pm and we and the volunteers were all ready
to have fun with them, but wait !! let me first share a bit about the school
that Sugar Mediaz was bringing happiness and joy to....*Mookdhwani Vidyalaya*, managed by Utkarsh Mandal, situated in a by-lane at Vile Parle, is a Marathi medium school,
established in 1982, providing free education to the hearing impaired children
as also parent counselling, guidance, rehabilitation supported by teachers,
speech therapists and social workers.
I
cannot even start to explain the overwhelming feeling that came over me standing
in the school hall and watching 100 children of all ages walking in and
settling down in front of us. At that moment, I realised that all the "dumb
charades" talent in the world would not be enough to communicate with them
or would it? It made me wonder that when they were looking at me doing the talking, was
it like what I felt while watching a silent film. Maybe not, because you needed
to be there to hear the laughter as the children communicated with each other
despite living in a world of silence themselves...as did team Sugar Mediaz with them. Dividing the
children into groups with a few teachers in each group; that was easy!!! but conducting
the games was no easy task, believe me. You will not believe the number of
times, stupid old me, out of force of habit said "suno" on the mike completely
forgetting that "suno" was a word that did not exist in their lives. Starting
off with two minute games such as poking straws in the hair, bindis on hands,
balancing coins holding biscuit in mouth and so on were received with much exuberance.
Simple games like musical chairs and more, especially conducted just for the
teachers made them so happy that we were surprised to be told that in past years,
no one had ever thought about conducting games for them. A balloon tied to the
ankle of each teacher and letting them loose to burst the other's balloons
while saving their own had them in splits. I cannot even get to down to
expressing the amount of laughter and noise the teachers themselves were
making. It was hilarious to actually have to tell the teachers to 'stop and
listen'. Darrpan dressed up as a clown making an entry with chocolates and
little toys which he threw to catch, had children screaming, scrambling and
grabbing as much as their little hands could. Amidst many more such fun games,
the afternoon ended with prizes for games, and gifts & snack boxes for
everyone.
I
realised by the end of the afternoon, the true meaning of "my world may be
silent but I can hear with my hands". I had completely forgotten about the
disability as the eyes, the heart and the hands spoke volumes and no one was
needed to translate anymore. The one thing I learnt today, is simple. No one is really deaf or dumb and all we need
to do is respect each other's intelligence and communicate ...... and as the tag line of Sugar Mediaz
says, let us just "communicate better" with a dash of understanding and a
sprinkle of compassion ... So the next
time I think of turning a deaf ear, I will think twice !!
