The group of men and women at the Training Centre for the Adult Deaf in Santhome has broken into a flurry of signs and urgent motioning. You can sense that inside jokes are being cracked. This is in response to the question, “Who is the best cook here?” and no one believes he/she deserves the title.
The centre is home to 10 men, between the ages of 18 and 25, from cities such as Salem, Erode, Coimbatore and Tirupur.
“We have come here because this city can give us a platform to show our talents,” signs Manikandan, a 20-year-old from Thirupur, who’s been here for the past one year. The centre’s PRO, Chitra Devi, acts as our translator for the day. She also acts as a guardian for the four women students of the centre, and stays with them at a rented house nearby.
The men and women here are trained in different areas such as computer operations (data entry), sports including chess, badminton, and athletics, designing and graphics, and on the weekends, photography and dance, by volunteers. However its USP: the two-year fitter course for the deaf and dumb, is the one that gets the maximum placements.
Dilapidated rooms
Even though the building was turned into a training centre only in 1970, it had been operational as a school under Madras Association of the Deaf since 1944. “Earlier, there would only be school-level education here. Then this training centre for adults was opened to ensure that the education also translated into jobs,” signs G Sridharan, treasurer for the centre and member of Madras Association of the Deaf.
Inside the centre, the walls betray the building’s age. Artworks by students hanging in the front room provide the only pop of colour in an otherwise drab space. Sunlight streaming in from multiple windows illuminates the building in spots where the house pets, a cat and a dog, lie. The classroom however, is well lit — a board outside declares it is a fitter class, and inside are lathe and cutting machines used to teach skills like sawing, cutting and putting minor industrial equipment together.
This classroom currently also doubles up as a place for the students to sleep. Technically, the building has two floors — the upper floor is supposed to be their bedroom. However, in the absence of a fan, the students have taken to sleeping in either the front room, or the classroom, leaving the upper floor, and the cracked staircase that leads up to it, as a storage space alone.
“We are looking for more funds to come in,” signs Meenakshi Sundaram, Vice President of Madras Association of the Deaf. “We need to improve the condition of the walls, and pay a higher salary to the faculty and other staff like the watchman.”
Both Meenakshi and Sridharan were students here themselves, in the 1976-78 and 1977-79 batches. They fondly remember their former teacher, Venugopalan, an ex-IT engineer. “He taught 25 of us in one class,” signs Meenakshi. Adds Chitra, “Since the past eight years or so, the admissions are down to less than 10 students in one year. Out of those 10, about eight get placed.”
No dearth of talent
Nineteen-year-old Sudhish proudly pushes forward a heavy bunch of certificates he has received over the years for his athletic achievements. “I love dancing as well,” signs Sudhish. This August, adds Chitra, Sudhish and his team will be performing at the finals of Chennai Got Talent. She shows a video of him, dancing to the ‘Mersal’ song in perfect rhythm. “Bhoomi Trust, an NGO, comes to teach them every Sunday,” says Chitra.
Manikandan, who has just played at the State-level Chess Championship for the Deaf, claims he wants to be a photographer. Every weekend morning, the men head to the beaches to practise their photography skills. Srivatsan Sankaran, founder of Madras Photo Bloggers is acting as their voluntary trainer. “I want to help make the process of mainstreaming deaf communities easier,” says Srivatsan, who himself has a hearing impairment. The students seem to have taken quite a liking to him — around his presence, each claims to want to be a photographer.
Meanwhile, as the students prepare their evening tea, the debate over who is the best chef has come to a rest. “Manikandan makes the best khichdi , but Lakshmi makes the best tomato rice,” they decide unanimously.
Training Centre for the Adult Deaf can be reached at 24641035.
