“Education, I tell youngsters with hearing impairment, is the launchpad for their future success. But if their strength lies in sports, then we must encourage that. Many of the hearing impaired are naturally good but their skills need polishing," says Ranjini Ramanujam, the Arjuna, Ekalavya and Karnataka Rajyotsava awardee, who has so far won 23 medals in national and international tournaments in both badminton and chess! This, despite starting her sports career late.
"At school, I used to be good in athletics but basketball was my favourite. Maybe it was in my genes. My father, M J Ramanujam, was a national-level basketball player. I didn't train specially in sports then, as my father firmly believed that education had to come first. But despite the teachers' best efforts I scored very low marks as I couldn't understand the lessons. When I came to high school, however, something just clicked and my grades started improving and I went on to complete my B.Com," recalls Ranjini.
Late starter
It was only when she was 18 that she started training in badminton. The choice of the sports was deliberate — badminton is an individual sport and doesn't need communicating with a team. Plus the fact that Rajeev Bagga, a hearing impaired individual, had become an open badminton champion, was inspiring. Within two years, Ranjini went on to represent India at the silent Olympics and returned home triumphant with both gold and silver medals.
Recalling her first trip abroad in 1997, Ranjini says, "I was as excited about flying and going all by myself as I was about the match. It was my first interaction with deaf people from other parts of India. Most of them used sign language or spoke a bit of their language. I learnt to communicate with them soon and had a great time. The trip gave a tremendous boost to my confidence." The family however was on tenterhooks. Since Ranjini can't communicate on the phone and as e-mails and cell phones had not yet become common, they would wait for Ranjini's fax or the occasional e mail that she sent to a relative's office.
During a subsequent tournament in Italy, "two of us went sightseeing. Neither of us understood Italian and had no common language between us. But still we managed," recollects Ranjini.
As Ranjini's sporting career took off, the family realised the financial burden. It wasn't easy to get sponsorship for trips abroad. The training, badminton kit, shoes, everything was expensive. Her father took voluntary retirement to assist his daughter. They had to fight red tape but many in the government and private sectors were helpful too.
Speech therapy
Having achieved so much in sports, this young business process executive with Infosys BPO, now wants to focus on her career. Listening to this hearing impaired girl use management jargon with ease and in grammatically correct sentences, one can imagine the effort that has gone in. Speech and language are big challenges for those born with profound hearing loss. Many go on to acquire sign language which comes naturally to them but regular language, whether spoken or written are acquired through enormous effort. In Ranjini's case, her family worked hard for 15 long years, taking her to speech therapy, working on her speech at home and helping with her studies. Ranjini's speech is now intelligible even to strangers (with some amount of effort and patience). Her language skills have been improving steadily and her sister, Anjana, who has now become a speech pathologist herself attributes this to the reading that Ranjini does and to the many e-mails that she sends.
What difference does the much travelled Ranjini find between our country and others? "People abroad are helpful. They are more aware. Things are becoming better here but even now people offer sympathy, which we don't want. If they could let me watch their lips or speak slowly, that would help." These are the kind of practical suggestions that come up in the monthly meetings of the differently abled (239 among a staff strength of 17,000) in her company and get subsequently implemented.
Ranjini also wants to help young hearing impaired children take up sports professionally, for, she knows how tough it can be without mentoring. Does the gutsy woman feel that she could have achieved more had she not been hearing-impaired? "Perhaps not more but I think I would have achieved what I've always dreamed of — which is to fly a plane."
