Have you ever had a deaf person in the family? Their problem aside, there is a lot of humor dealing with them. Please don't think I am rude. I know how hard it is for them.
My grand father is stone deaf from as far as I know him. Do you all want to know from where and why did this sudden post on deafness rise from? My son was reading a story book today where in the grandmother was partially deaf and it took me back to some memories with my grand dad.
I think I must be 8 or 9 years old at that time. Mom fought with every species on earth to put me in an English medium boarding school. Glad she did that. Otherwise, I would be secretly running around English Vinglish classes like our dear Sridevi. Hmm..anyway, that's not what we are talking here.
So, on one of the home coming holidays, dear grandpa came to pick me up. The bus stopped at a junction. I remember sitting in his lap, turning back and saying, I want to go to toilet. He smiled. I knew he mustn't have heard it. I repeated. I want to go to toilet. Looks like he just heard the toilet part. He said, oh toilet (toilette) box. I will buy for you. Once we go home, I will buy for you. I nodded my head left and right and said, No, tatagaru (grandpa) and showed my last finger and hope he understood.
I remember mom writing paras and paras for him when she wanted to have a long discussion/argument with him. And grandma, oh god! The way she would make signs, yell what not. The funniest part was and is, he would aptly hear anything related to money.
Ahhh..Now I know why people choose me in their team whenever we play dumb charades. All this years of expressing with signs have to come use.
Now is my daughter's turn. We believe that my grand mom is reborn as our little one as she has all her traits.
Mom tells me, while going to school, she would rush to him and ask, Did you have your breakfast? All he hears is the food part. He thinks that she is telling him the food is ready and prepares to eat. Now, it's my mom's turn to announce to the whole complex that she is going to drop the kid at school and breakfast would be served after she returns. This is a daily ritual is what I hear. :)
Somehow, I don't recollect many incidents now. It would be fun to know if you had any such encounters.
P.S: After reading a comment I remembered one thing. Any person who cannot hear would switch on the TV with blaring noise, where as he switches it on, keeps it in mute and reads the scrolls at the bottom..:)
My grand father is stone deaf from as far as I know him. Do you all want to know from where and why did this sudden post on deafness rise from? My son was reading a story book today where in the grandmother was partially deaf and it took me back to some memories with my grand dad.
I think I must be 8 or 9 years old at that time. Mom fought with every species on earth to put me in an English medium boarding school. Glad she did that. Otherwise, I would be secretly running around English Vinglish classes like our dear Sridevi. Hmm..anyway, that's not what we are talking here.
So, on one of the home coming holidays, dear grandpa came to pick me up. The bus stopped at a junction. I remember sitting in his lap, turning back and saying, I want to go to toilet. He smiled. I knew he mustn't have heard it. I repeated. I want to go to toilet. Looks like he just heard the toilet part. He said, oh toilet (toilette) box. I will buy for you. Once we go home, I will buy for you. I nodded my head left and right and said, No, tatagaru (grandpa) and showed my last finger and hope he understood.
I remember mom writing paras and paras for him when she wanted to have a long discussion/argument with him. And grandma, oh god! The way she would make signs, yell what not. The funniest part was and is, he would aptly hear anything related to money.
Ahhh..Now I know why people choose me in their team whenever we play dumb charades. All this years of expressing with signs have to come use.
Now is my daughter's turn. We believe that my grand mom is reborn as our little one as she has all her traits.
Mom tells me, while going to school, she would rush to him and ask, Did you have your breakfast? All he hears is the food part. He thinks that she is telling him the food is ready and prepares to eat. Now, it's my mom's turn to announce to the whole complex that she is going to drop the kid at school and breakfast would be served after she returns. This is a daily ritual is what I hear. :)
Somehow, I don't recollect many incidents now. It would be fun to know if you had any such encounters.
P.S: After reading a comment I remembered one thing. Any person who cannot hear would switch on the TV with blaring noise, where as he switches it on, keeps it in mute and reads the scrolls at the bottom..:)
Posts
The bright side dealing with the deaf is that you are an expert in dumb charades.
ReplyDeleteI have a deaf grandpa too and he used to watch the news channel in such a very loud volume that it was difficult for me to study though I was three rooms away.
Realised you are a telugite. Me too.
Welcome here Aparna and thanks for following..:)
DeleteTrue, we become an expert in that game..Yes, am a telugite too..Just had a glimpse of your blog. will check it out. Hope to see you often. :)
aahh the Grand parents..bring back such good memories. My Grandma was partly deaf too and we had so many funny situations. When I go back and think of days I realise how sweet she was and miss her. Wherever you are may you rest in peace Ammamma, I will always love u.
ReplyDeleteI too miss my ammamma forever. Now, Ammu does things exactly like her. That's why my mom and her siblings say that she is their mother. Can you believe, in our last India trip, when people asked her what's your name, she would say, "Jayamma garu"...haha :)
Deletehaha That must be fun and frustrating too. I don't have any such memories. But memories of childhood are so much fun, aren't they?
ReplyDeleteYes Rachna. It's fun and frustrating too. There are some thing which we want to convey him personally, but have to yell in a way where the whole colony can listen. :) True, some childhood memories are cherished forever.
DeleteFIF...All of us grew up with lovely childhood stories. Reading this was so much fun...amusing, to say the least..:)Thanks for sharing..
ReplyDeleteBTW, your page looks awesome...:-D
Glad it made you smile.. :) Nice to see you after a long time here. Oh! thank you so much for that compliment. I'm blushing here. I tried changing the layout last week as the season is Fall, but didn't like any. Now, I think I'll stick with this for some more days.
Deletehahhaa FIF, its the same with my grandmother at home ;) she is deaf for any worlds problems but very clearly hears anything related to food :D
ReplyDeleteThat always surprises us ...
Nice post so much memories :D
haha..Same here Ramya, he aptly hears anything related to money, pension or food. Whenever my granny would yell, he would come to me and ask, what is she saying? But looking at her facial expressions, he would smile and say, this female is always like that..lol
DeleteMy parents are both getting old and also hard of hearing. \But the funniest part is you whisper and they hear, you shout and they hear :D
ReplyDeleteWhatever we try to keep secret from them, is heard while what is to be heard is never heard :D
LOL...so true Bhagyasree. Many times I noticed that. When you talk quietly they can hear. I always wondered there must be some reason scientifically behind it.. :D
DeleteI dont have any such memories but my mom has told me some accounts of her own deaf grandmother :) On a serious note, if we put ourselves in their place life can be hell. Somehow blind people get sympathy and deaf ones the ridicule. I dunno y?
ReplyDeleteYes, life can be hard but not all that bad I believe. True. I think blind people get more sympathy and concern because they can't see anything at all. Where as for deaf people there are other alternatives. They can use hearing aid, they can read if we write for them and reply back. At least they can ask questions and we can write the answers back if we have some patience and time.
DeleteNow that you put it , I had some fun time like that and took some advantage of my grand dad's hearing problem too.. many a times he had to agree to things which i said he agreed to earlier .. I can be wicked and bad I know ..
ReplyDeleteI face this when talking ot my nani these days from uk.. most of the convrsation is hello hello hello
Bikram's
Hahaha...don't worry Bikram. We all are part of it. And who else will we have fun with apart from our grandparents? We can't do the same to a neighbour or friend right? :)yes, phone conversations can be tough. We hardly speak to our grandpa.
DeleteDeafness unlike blindness leads to some comical situations due to wrong responses.It is a disability that most old people are prone to entitling them to the same care and concern that blind are extended.
ReplyDeleteI agree KP sir. I wonder many times how left out they must be feeling when the whole family is having a conversation and they can't participate. Luckily my grandpa doesn't bother or care. He finds bliss in the news papers.
DeleteMy granddad was situationally deaf. If he was not interested in what you were saying, then you could bring elephants to trumpet in his ear and he will still sleep like a baby and when he really wanted to eavesdrop, he could hear across walls as thick as the Berlin wall.
ReplyDeleteHahaha..then, you need to think about it. Thanks for stopping by, Amit.
DeleteI am confused whether I should laugh or feel empathy because life can be hard for them though these moments of happiness and laughter bring relief :)
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Jas. But my grand father belongs to an altogether entirely different category. We have got him umpteen sets of hearing aids which he doesn't maintain and loses them as quickly as we get him. :)
Deleteha ha.. :) and congrats for spicy saturday :)
DeleteJas, what spicy Saturday? I didn't get you.. :( am I missing something here?
DeleteJas, I just realized what it is.. Thank you dear. See what a big dumbo I am. I think the blogadda team should send out an email to the people they pick..a million thanks to you..:)
DeleteNothing to beat those who become situationally deaf! Hear what suits you while the rest goes unheeded:)
ReplyDeletehahaha...couldn't agree to you better.. :)I wish we all could become situationally deaf.
DeleteMy 87 year old Dad is starting to go deaf, although he refuses to believe it - we're in for some fun I think. I do remember a strange conversation I had with a friend of his who visited when Dad was out. I told him that Dad was not at home and explained where he had gone. He nodded told me something else and then asked where Dad was. It was hilarious and sad at the same time!
ReplyDeleteHaha.. true Corinne. that's how it happens. It is sad in deed. But I don't know, why it is funny at the same time. I am bad!! Yep, you're in for some fun for sure. :)
DeleteI felt quite amused reading your post. I really enjoyed reading every word.I used the word amused because I am myself a grandma.My grand children speak exactly as has been narrated in this post.So much so that my grand daughter named my blog 'eccentricgrandmum.blogspot'. I dont mind all this. Infact I enjoy when children are happy.Let me whisper one more thing('They all think I am hard of hearing, whereas I am not)
ReplyDeleteWelcome here and many thanks to you for an amusingly complimenting comment...:) will check your blog. Hahah, the best part is "they all think"... :) glad you liked reading it.
DeleteNo, I have no one in my family but I think I'll one when I grow old. I have problem in hearing. :P
ReplyDeleteSaru, 100 years for you dear. I was just thinking about you few minutes back.wondering what I am thinking? I was remembering that poem of yours, stallions of my dreams..:)
DeleteDon't worry..it's when we become old na...then our grandkids will be writing like this...:P
Such a beautiful post!! I had a grandfather who progressively turned deaf towrds the later years of his life. And he would laugh whenever we spoke something and he couldn't understand..... he was such a sport!Congrats on the Spicy pick!
ReplyDeleteThank you for your kind words, Nirvana. Welcome here.I bet your grandfather must be a very nice person. I didn't know I would get new readers for the spicy pick. Am glad..:)
Delete:) My dad keeps telling us his hearing is not good, anymore. If it's him, we're talking about, however softly we speak, he hears it. :D
ReplyDeleteSelective hearing, I say!!
Hahah, then it is selective hearing. :P Welcome here and thanks for stopping by. :)
DeleteOh yes, they are..of course they are two generations ahead of us, so they have seen more life than us..:-)
ReplyDeleteMy dad has a hearing problem. The TV blares in our house 20*7 :( He also has eye problem so he doesn't read the scrolls. The interesting thing is while my dad is eager to correct his eye problem he does not like anyone talking about him getting an hearing aid!
ReplyDeleteHaha..may be they get used to that, not being able to hear and may be they enjoy that phase..we won't know it until we face the problem.
DeleteIt can be sad and amusing at the same time!
ReplyDeleteWill share from another person's perspective..My friend's father has hearing issues. We shared a good rapport... he is a retired IFS officer and whenever we met him, he had so many stories to share. Then once he told me, you know, why I am always talking and do not allow others to talk, that's because, I can't hear properly and it's not easy living like this, so I have devised this method... I felt so sad for him!
Yeah. You are right. That's a sad thing to listen :(
DeleteThis comment had been deleted by mistake and I had been trying for so long to restore it. Glad, I did it.. :)