Ruma Roka - The Sound of Music

   Oftentimes we come across people who claim that their life would've been so much better if they just got that one thing. In this mindless pursuit of "that one thing", rarely do they appreciate what they actually have! As Oscar Wilde articulately puts it, "Most people are other people." And this approach of doing everything just like other people do is exactly what the 500 Government Aided Deaf Schools across the country follow when it comes to schooling the deaf - using an oralist approach for people whose world is devoid of sound. It seems ridiculous, doesn't it? I mean how can one even think of teaching a deaf person using something that he has never felt and can never feel?! But that's the crude reality of it - the video (at 01:30) demonstrates the vulgarity of the approach. And as Ruma Roka puts it, that's really one of the reasons why the deaf eventually came to be treated as 'Deaf and Dumb', both literally and metaphorically.

   But wait! Who is Ruma Roka and why do I mention her?  She is the one who has made it her life to prove otherwise - the woman who founded the Noida Deaf Society with the motto, DEAF BUT NOT DUMB. In the Franklin Templeton Investments partnered TEDxGateway Mumbai in December 2012, she talks about the need for accepting this diversity in a land where 66.733 million people are deaf (Source: Situation Review and Update on Deafness, Hearing Loss and Intervention Programmes by WHO, December 2007). The deaf learn through visuals in a much better way. This is what the Noida Deaf Society set out to accomplish - creating training modules for the deaf to empower them to step onto the vistas of the professional world. And they've come a long way in their journey. From a batch of 5 students, they now train more than 300 students each year.

   It's quite humbling when you actually put yourself in a deaf man's shoe for a minute. In this world of constant discussions, conversations, speeches, how alienating would it be to devoid of sound? We pride ourselves on our unity in diversity, but people actually shy away from you when you're not as they are, when you don't fit into their mental model; basically when you're different. But thats hardly how Roma takes it; in fact she says its this cut-off from noise due to which the deaf perform their tasks with much more sincerity. This selfless dedication to the cause has driven this woman to empower an unheard and unspoken-of generation. For the hundreds of deaf people that now lead a life of value and dignity thanks to her efforts, Roma is the sound of music.

Shades of grey

Tell me now what would you do , what would you say when there is no ..
Black or white, but only shades of grey.

Who would be right, who would be wrong, who would decide ...
On the face of a fray?

Fear & Failure

   Fear is irrational because of two reasons- firstly, it does not serve any PURPOSE to be fearful of something; fear, by its insidious nature, weakens the capability of the person to deal with the thing which he is afraid of. Secondly, fear is borne out of things whose consequence is UNKNOWN at best - as Socrates points out that it is irrational to fear death because we really don't know what follows, I co-relate it with a fear that is ingrained into the impressible minds of the Indian society - the fear of FAILURE.

          "If you FAIL the test, you will not get a good job!"
          "If your venture FAILS, your well built career will go down the drain."

   Such sentences have been thrown at us since childhood. However, the stark stupidity behind each of these claims is that NOBODY knows what WOULD HAVE happened, had the person failed. Perhaps the person would have discovered something INVALUABLE that success could never teach him. Perhaps not. The point being that YOU DON'T KNOW! So how can anyone, so brazenly, pronounce that you are doomed if you were to fail?

   It is apt to end this small write-up on our renewed understanding about fear & failure by the following quote:

"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." - Thomas Edison 

You Are What You Eat

   Voila! Now I know why the aunty next door reminds me of a samosa! Or why Goans wear a lithe body like their own squids & prawns; or why Koli women are rotund like the  pomfret fish (mermaids, eh?); or why the Venkat Ramakrishnans from Kerala have heads resembling coconuts; or why, living in Mumbai, I’m sometimes unable to distinguish the man from the vada pav!

   Needless to say that I’m going overboard with the phrase and neither Brillat-Savarin nor Feuerbach meant their quotations to be taken literally. They were stating that the food one eats has a bearing on one’s state of mind and health. As Gautam Buddha states, “All that we are is a result of what we have thought,” the essence of You Are What You Eat is essentially the same. We are. It's every bit as true as it is hard to see. Just as our homes are made from lumber without looking like trees, our bodies are made from the nutrients we extract from foods. The nutritional content of what we eat determines the composition of our cell membranes, bone marrow, blood, and hormones. Consider that the average adult loses roughly 300 billion cells to old age every day and must replace them. Our bodies are literally manufactured out of the food we consume.

   This idea is not just one of those things picked up from the Western world; it is ingrained into our Indian culture as well- there is a Gujarati saying (my editor will be proud of me for this one!) which goes as, “Ann juda ena mann juda” It means that different kitchens breed different kinds of thinking. It’s an interesting thing to think about and ultimately goes on to show how intricately food becomes a part of who we are.
        Although a question still remains unanswered...