The Golden Jubilee Celebration of Bro.Octavian

Selfless dedicated service for the visually & Hearing Challenged

Aug 23, 2008 

St. Louis Institute for the Blind & Deaf, Adyar, Chennai, India

Spotlight on experimental design and tribal art

Creative range: Some of the works of differently-abled children on display at the WLC College in Chennai on Sunday.

CHENNAI: Vibrant collages, elegant pencil sketches and experimental dress designs produced by students of the St. Louis School for the Deaf, Adyar, and Clarke’s School for the Specially Abled Children, Mylapore, were on display at the WLC College in Alwarpet in Chennai on Sunday.

Collection

The exhibition marks a milestone indeed in the journey of two students towards putting together a meaningful design collection.

Titled ‘Thandavam’, Radhika Ganesh and Shwetha Raju, students of fashion designing, hope to bring out this set of apparel and accessories that would be inspired by all things Tamil in May.

They also would like to raise awareness of the abilities of the hearing and speech impaired by conducting workshops on design for special children, to help them benefit from their own knowledge.

Elements

On Saturday and Sunday, students from the two institutions played around with the elements of design, tribal art motifs and experimental designs.

Ms. Ganesh is eloquent with praise, “These children are very visually oriented and have a flair for art.”

The workshops would also give students a glimpse of a possible career option from Classes IX and above, Ms. Raju added.

At the college on Sunday evening, students with and without hearing aids were being instructed with signs from their teacher.

Paint-smudged fingers and excited faces hovered over brightly-coloured paintings.

“Since they cannot hear or talk, they are less likely to be distracted,” a student said, while two children behind her carried out an animated conversation in sign language.

The project has been sponsored by the college and space provided to conduct the event, on the premises.

“Creativity requires independence and we are glad to encourage it,” P. Kesavdass, WLC Centre Head, said.

A similar workshop was held previously for students of the St. Louis College for Deaf, Adyar.

Smile, sign language are warriors in this tourney

DEEP IN THOUGHT: Gopinath (left) thinking about his next move during the Chennai Open Chess Competition for the Hearing Impaired in Chennai

CHENNAI: G. Gopinath’s smile and sign language after his triumph in the Chennai Open Silent Chess Championship seemed to be loaded with meaning.

Yet only those who had the privilege to decipher his language of silence understood it and reacted accordingly.

His sign language read: “I am very happy.” Yet his body language conveyed some gloom at a remote part of his psyche.

The 34-year-old Gopinath started playing chess 13 years ago. He was able to enjoy school life only till class VI in the Clark school for the hearing impaired. Monetary constraints his parents faced made them put him in a mainstream school. He was unable to cope with the change and failed in class VIII. He dropped out of school.

The one-year fitter course at the Government Vocational Rehabilitation Centre for Handicapped, Guindy, too could not fetch him his dream job with the Indian Railways as fitter. His answer in sign language to what he wanted to achieve in life was: “A job with the Railways.”

“While the visually impaired are given stipend by the government, the hearing impaired are not given stipend. So persons with hearing impairment who don’t have proper jobs suffer a lot,” says M.S.P. Kulandaisamy, a member of the Tamil Nadu Sports Council for the Deaf. The child who is unable to speak or hear will face a serious learning problem if not trained by special experts, he adds. “The future of that child will be at stake.”

V.R.Venkatesan, organising secretary of the Silence Brotherhood said, “The Chess Championship has increased the enthusiasm among the fraternity of the hearing impaired.”

Cricket match for hearing impaired

SPORTING SPIRIT: Actor Bosskey interacts with players at the inter-district cricket tournament for the hearing impaired organised in Chennai on Tuesday as interpreter Vijaya Bhaskaran of Ability Foundation translates it into sign language. — P hoto: R. Ragu

CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu Cricket Association for the Deaf organised their first inter-district cricket tournament for the hearing impaired here on Tuesday.

Teams from Kanyakumari, Cuddalore, Tiruvallur and Chennai gathered at the Anna University playground for the qualifying matches. The final match is scheduled for Thursday.

Inaugurating the tournament, actor and television personality Bosskey said that cricket was a sportsman's game, and that what mattered was how one played it and not what one was. "Don't get discouraged by the disability. See the positive aspects," he said.

As the actor spoke to them, Vijaya Bhaskaran of Ability Foundation translated it into sign language. Every time he cracked a joke, they applauded by waving their hands in the air. While some of the players were hearing impaired, a few were both hearing and speech impaired.

Secretary of the Association Barkat S. Saiyed said he had played for Gujarat earlier and that he had gained a lot of experience there. "I want to share it with the juniors," he said.

Captain of the Chennai team Raja said Sachin Tendulkar inspired him most. "He joined the team as a young lad and later grew to become the greatest cricketers in the history of the game," he said. Raja will represent India in the Asia Cup tournament to be organised in Delhi early next year.

P. Chandrasekar, who has been coaching the Chennai team for the last year, said a scientific way of coaching would help. "Many who usually play tennis ball cricket have come to play with the cricket ball. Coaching has to be consistent and not just before tournaments," he said.
Mr. Chandrasekar said that though he found communicating with the players challenging, he had eventually picked up a little bit of sign language and managed to impart basic skills to his students. "An interpreter is vital as there is a possibility of them misunderstanding what we say if we have not communicated the matter to them clear enough," he explained.

Different Strokes

A couple of deft, firm strokes curve the prim line into generous, laughing lips. Two small specks of white paint were all that were needed to transform the black, lifeless orbs into a pair of twinkling, mischievous eyes. The whole illustration took just inside of five minutes. A loud whistle of appreciation escapes your lips. Yet, on looking up, you find that nothing, nothing at all, has registered in the anxious face which is watching you intently. It's only when you nod your head, gesture with your eyes and form a circle with your thumb and index finger that the mouth stretches into a slow, shy smile.

Sitting in a typically tiny middle class house in the suburbs of Madras, in front of a cluttered, well scrubbed table which must be put to a million other uses by the family when not serving as a perfectly functional drawing board, with a chipped porcelain tile as his palette, he looks like any other struggling young artist. Sita Ramachariyalu, who signs himself as Sita Ram. It's his hands of course that you notice first. Long, slender and tapering which, as the cliche goes, are archetypal artist's hands. They perform, besides, yet another important function: they speak. As must his eyes — penetrating and luminous and not suprisingly the most striking feature in the thin face capped by a shock of curls. Sita Ram, you see, is both deaf and dumb. From birth. Perhaps you are already familiar with his paintings without really being aware of it. You must have, at some time or the other, flipped through a copy of Chandamama, India's oldest children's magazine. Juggle your memory a bit do you remember being amused at the spectacle of Akbar losing his regal composure and breaking into a hearty, plebeian laugh at the antics of the wily Birbal. Or may be it was one of those quaint short stories featuring animals which held your attention —the supercilious donkey, its nose (oh yes!) in the air, haughtily walking past the other animals. All these pictures have one thing in common — they bear the stamp of Sita Ram's excellence.

What makes Sita Ram so special? After all, there must be hundreds of other deaf and dumb artists who are as exceptionally gifted. Art, to Sita Ram, is not.merely a vehicle to convey his inner emotions, a platform to make a statement. It is a job like any other. Coming from an ordinary middle-class back ground, he has to work for a living. And as a magazine illustrator, he has to capture pictorially, as it were, the essence of the story.How does he do it? He takes home the manuscript along with the instructions of what he has to paint. Either his mother or his father reads the story and explains what exactly he is required to draw. The next day in the office, working on the guidelines provided by his parents, he completes his sketches.

There is a striking quality about all his works. The technique is bold and firm, and the lines are fluid and graceful. What really distinguishes him from other painters of his genre is his complete mastery over the brush. Even for the thinnest of outlines he never uses a pen. Only the brush, using it much like a sorcerer would a wand, conjuring pure magic. Says an artist with over twenty-five years experience, "Even after all these years, I cannot wield the brush so deftly. I've never seen him use a pen, even to define his outlines." Perceptive and alert to the inconspicuous mannerisms which so distinguish a person, he has the gift of unerringly catching the right expression to complement the mood of the story. Says a regular reader of Chandamama of yet another facet of his genius, "I adore his pictures of animals. Flawlessly proportionate even when they are cartoonish, and ...oh...so — cute!" Perfectly true. His pictures are just as they ought to be for children's books. Anthropomorphic, attributing humanised feelings to animals — a stupidly grinning donkey baring all its teeth, a disdainful pony, a cowering, cowardly puppy, a happy-go-lucky cuddly bear.Yet it cannot be all that easy. There are times when the illustration is not perfect. It requires period costumes or another nationality. Says a colleague, "He makes clucking noises, as if annoyed with himself and smites his fist on his forehead." Of course he doesn't take much time to rectify his mistakes.

For all his precocity and prodigious talent, he is curiously uninformed. Even about the contemporary art scene. He has never heard of any art movement, and 'isms' to him are but fancy incomprehensible words. In fact, he has studied only upto Std.V. It is amazing that without any formal education or training he has developed his own techniques.

Born in thetown of Rajamundry in Andhra Pradesh, nearly twenty-five years ago, Sita Ram is the youngest of four children. While his elder brother is perfectly normal, Sita Ram and his two sisters were born deaf and dumb. Since the town didn't have an institution for the deaf and dumb, all three of them were forced to attend a normal school. It was, however, impossible to study beyond Std. V. It was providential that Sita Ram's grandfather took him under his wing. Named after him, it was perhaps decreed that he would inherit his talent and follow his footsteps. A diploma holder from the JJ School of Arts, Bombay, Sita Ramachariyalu Sr. returned to his native town to take over as the principal of the Damerla Rama Rao Memorial Arts School and Gallery, Rajamundry. Recognising the innate talent in his grandson as early as he was only three, he began training him. Teaching him all that one could tell a mere child about lines, light, shade and colour. Unfortunately even this education was cut short by the untimely death of his grandfather. Before he entered his teens and before his grandfather could impart the wisdom of his vast experience and explain the legacy of the great painters. Under the tutelage of his grandfather's students, he acquired a diploma of sorts.

For a few years he did whatever odd job that came his way — painting educational aids and charts for the classroom walls. A cousin on a visit form Madras, astounded by his talent and appalled that he was wasting it illustrating records for lazy university students, decided to take him in hand. Sita Ram found himself in Madras and in the offices of Chandamama.

Many doors opened, yes, but only to be shut quickly even before he put a foot inside. For a gauche, diffident boy from a hick town, one who was deaf and dumb as well, the teeming metropolis was bewildering. And for the first time in his life he was painfully aware of the consequences of his lack of education. On joining the association of the deaf and dumb, he realised that most of his counterparts were school finalists and that some could even talk! (contrary to popular belief the deaf are not really dumb. It's only because they cannot hear and therefore do not know what sound really is, they do not exercise their vocal chords. Through training they can talk). His father regrets didn't have that he the foresight to shift to a bigger city when they were young. After coming to Madras, they explored all avenues, but Sita Ram and his sisters were found too old to attend school. The training, a long difficult process, begins as early as in the second year of a child.

Today, determined as he is to acquire some kind of education, a teacher comes to teach him English. Though the teacher himself is satisfied with the steady progress he is making, Sita Ram is impatient and dissatisfied. To him his best is not simply good enough. He sees himself as a burden to his parents who must accompany him wherever he goes, if only to act the interpreter. And even for the simplest of jobs he requires guidance from his parents. He shakes his head mournfully as if to say, "Tell me, which twenty-five-year old has a father carrying his portfolio around and playing the nursemaid." Says his father woefully," His lack of education has even stunted his artistic potential. It's his immaturity which prevents him from being a greater painter. He has had no exposure to the artistic world. His imagination has suffered." It's only now after visiting a few book shops in the city that Ram has seen good art books.But they are so prohibitively expensive that he can do nothing more than glance through them and place them back on the shelves.

Shy and introverted, he keeps to himself. Both at home and at work. Perhaps he is afraid of being teased, such experiences being not too uncommon. Says his mother, "He is obsessed with his future. And convinced that he is a burden to us. The whole day he either paints or studies English."

It is only in the company of his deaf and dumb friends that you see a different Sita Ram. Happy, cheerful and totally at ease with himself. Where he is really himself. An avid cricketer, he is a handy bowler in his team. A movie buff, he is an ardent fan of the Bachchan. Among the stars of the Southern ti nsel-vil le, there is, he believes, none to touch Rajnikanth for action-packed masalas. But for emotional dramas he would go for Kamal Haasan any day. And not suprisingly, he revels in cartoons, above all. Marvelling at the exquisite animations of Walt Disney and others and learning something new from them each time.

The sea which is just a stone's throw from his house often beckons him. And, no, it's not the immense artistic possibilities of the foamy waves striking the sandy shores which draw him like a magnet. The vast expanse of the inky, fathomless ocean sets the mood for contemplation. Standing at the edge of the sea, with the waves lapping at his feet, he dreams of the day he will become truly independent, the day he will carry his portfolio, without his father having to play the nursemaid. That and become as good a painter as his grandfather.