The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Smile, sign language are the warriors in this tourney

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Tuesday, Jul 01, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Smile, sign language are the warriors in this tourney

Aloysius Xavier Lopez

“The championship has increased their enthusiasm”

— Photo: R.Shivaji Rao

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

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.”

Tough times

“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.”

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