PLIGHT OF THE PARTIALLY DEAF

Anit Mukerjea

What would it be like to be saddled with a pair of ears impaired by a sense of hearing without fully absorbing the outer stimuli of sound in the world of the partially deaf? But only Akash and others of his ilk could tell, feel and experience this loss one had to bear in receiving aurally the muffled, indistinct noise vibrations within his immediate environs. The void created by his partial deafness which always cannot clearly register the nuances of the spoken word exchanged between people in a continuous stream of dialogues; a malady that can prove to be a source of some irritation and jest among his immediate family members, friends and acquaintances.

On the wrong side of seventy, perhaps old age was catching up on him, Akash sometimes felt. A Septuagenarian who still had enough pluck despite suffering the recent loss of his hearing aids to sustain his presence of mind to forge ahead the conflicting situations of his life, come what may and, because of this special ability, his partial deafness, so to speak, did not affect the faculty of his speech. To make matters worse, his sense of smell too had abandoned him. This too, he got used to although, occasionally he did feel the pinch of being deprived of the perfumes of mother nature, it also came in the way of defining culinary delicacies which he put to the test in experimenting with novel and exotic dishes he would have a bash at in his spare time at home, entertaining guests who were overwhelmed by his cooking skills.

Being basically simple, righteous and honest, Akash was endowed with a smooth olive complexioned skin and handsome sharp features which somehow managed to hold back the ravages of time and looked ten years younger than his actual calendar age without a trace of wrinkles except, for the thinning hair above his broad forehead. Irrespective of the internal deficiencies, Akash somewhat managed to maintain a cheerful façade but, deep within him he sometimes felt the pang of loneliness and mental depression spurred on by missing two of his five senses enjoyed by all and sundry. It also gave him a childish streak at times.

His wife, Rajkumari is twenty years younger than him and, in consequence of Akash’s hearing inadequacy, would shout at him like a banshee which provoked her even further to augment her decibel levels to treble and triple tones to drive home the point of the nitty gritty of the bazar items to be purchased from the market for their daily sustenance. Although, in the past, Akash’s improved communication skills promoted his successful career as a P.R., but his public relations career had now to take a nose dive driven to the backseat of inactivity and, kept under wraps at least, for the time being till he received his new pair of hearing aids.

Both his wife, Rajkumari, and some friends told him to retire with grace and call it a day. He had earned sufficiently in the PR career with which he was engaged for so many years to keep body and soul together by way of a lucrative income that kept his bank balance and wallet well heeled in order to see him through his retirement days for the rest of his life. But Akash would not hear of it, as he was always used to a lot of activitywhich kept him going rather than sit idle at home enjoying his retirement days.

He, somehow, could not reconcile himself to a life of total retirement which meant inaction, and, in turn, the latter meant death. For Akash and otherslike him, irrespective of their age, kept themselves busy as P.R. consultants. One day, one of his close P.R friend, Probal, dropped in to inform Akash of an important event as the latter was only attending miscellaneous events in Kolkata with his PR engagement tentatively stalled on account of his inability, but, instead he kept himself busy with consultancy work that entailed training and promoting young aspiring PR’s towards a successful career in this profession.

However, Probal was ushered into Akash’s small flat in South Kolkata and Akash welcomed him. Probal, known during school days as Probal Chowdhury, was Akash’s classmate and a senior PR Consultant. Though in his mid sixties, his hair was still raven black and a body that developed a pot-belly which betrayed his once wafer-thin figure in the hey days. “Would you like a cup of tea?” queried Akash to his guest. Probal addressed his host’s query with the choice of his preferred beverage bearing in mind the cold climate.“There is apparently a nip in the air and I would be much obliged if you offered me a cup of coffee instead of tea. Coffee with plenty of milk and sugar if it is not a botheration.”

“Toffee? You care for toffee instead of tea?” inquired Akash betrayed by his hearing sense.

“I distinctly requested for Coffee, (loudly) Akash!” Not toffee as you presumed. What do you take me to be, an overgrown kid or something hankering after toffee?” Probal mildly reproved. Akash reacted with a sheepish grin when, at this point his wife Rajkumari thought it expedient to shuffle her way into the kitchen and then promptly placed the desired beverage before Akash and his friend Probal. Sipping coffee and savouring the flavour, Probal expressed his delight with “Excellent coffee. Quite bracing for this January weather. I have some news for you.”

“What views? You just conveyed your views of the excellent coffee Probal!”

“Oh! For Christ sake (Probal being a Bengali Christian) I clearly said news and not views” blurted Probal at the highest decibel level with slight traces of irritation which would have been amusing if there was a third person sitting silently enjoying the spectacle of the interaction between a normal and partially deaf person with underlying sadistic delight.

“Oh! News” as though it were a revelation for Akash when he continued

“What news?”

“I have been appointed as a PR to organize an event as part of Nehru’s Centenary Celebrations. I would like you to attend the function without informing the press. That is my responsibility. Okay Akash?” said Probal.

“What, Nehru’s Sanitary celebrations! Not a bad idea really. I think that would be a welcome idea if implemented considering the lack of sanitation and public urinals in Kolkata. It drives the public to the call of nature piddling out in the open, making a nuisance and spectacle of themselves which is most un-hygenic” revolted Akash in disgust.

“I said Nehru’s ‘Centenary’ not ‘Sanitary’. Please listen carefully Akash!” shouted Probal. Here Rajkumari, Akash’s wife giggled and was beside herself with laughter when she addressed herself to Akash’s friend Probal.

“His father was deaf too? Akash is a chip of the old block. I daresay it is hereditary. It comes down the line, boudi (a term usually addressed to a Bengali housewife). You should take him to an ENT specialist for proper treatment. Neglect may cause further deterioration.” Suggested Probal. On hearing this Akash revolted at the idea “What take me to an ET those weird extra terrestrials from another planet? But that is a figment of Spielberg’s cinematic imagination. Have you gone clean out of your mind. ET’s in this concrete jungle called Kolkata?”

Both Probal and Rajkumari were shaken with comic hysteria on hearing this at the very absurdity of Akash’s assumptions when his wife broke in and spoke close to his ears

“Your friend meant ENT, aEar, Nose and Throat specialist. Not ET of Spielberg’s creation. On hearing this Akash woke up to realize how deaf he had become and welcomed the proposal.

“I have long been telling my wife to take me to a ear specialist but, my pleas had apparently fallen on deaf ears.”

To this, his wife, Rajkumari reacted sharply “What do you take me for? You only think about yourself. What about my ailments one after the other and more complications than what you ever suffered that landed me at the ICU a number of times. Do you forget those days?” Here Akash’s friend Probal intervened with a compromising stance. “Boudi! Don’t worry your head over this. I have a close friend, London trained ENT specialist who is really good and, I think you should go to him. He will be of great help to your husband’s deaf condition. I will personally speak to him. Both of you should go and visit his chamber at Gariahat and get Akash treated before his condition gets worse.” Before calling it a day,Probal requested Akash with these words“Please bring your wife to the Nehru Centenary celebrations. Both of you are most welcome.” But hard of hearing Akash with his customary reaction said “Bring my life to the celebrations. How can I be present without bringing my life, it sounds absurd. Do you expect me to kick the bucket and bring my dead body?”

Probal heaved a sigh of relief when Rajkumari interrupted whispering into Akash’s ears the word ‘wife’ and not ‘life’ much to the amusement of the trio. After a couple of days, Akash visited the ENT specialist’s chamber but, without being accompanied by his wife who was down with a virus infection. He was accompanied instead by his sister-in-law, Uma, who had come to tend to Rajkumari’s sudden illness. Under medical treatment, Rajkumari would not hear of Akash going alone to the ENT specialist as he would make a blunder given his partial deafness and absent-mindedness.

So Uma had to tag along to explain to the medical practitioner regarding Akash’s aural malcondition. The ENT specialist, Dr Utpal Jana, after careful reading of the symptons with his medical instruments, came to discover the real cause behind the blocked passage in both the ears that disrupted external sound in the patient’s hearing ability. Ofcourse, after much deliberation weighing the pros and cons and, on probing the ears with thin needle-fine instruments to cleanse the dirt blockage, Dr Jana finally came to the conclusion of his diagnosis while maintaining his customary silence of a few seconds.

The ensuing pause managed to stir Akash’s hope that it would be a minor problem of blockage owing to dirt accumulation and, that it would finally relieve him of donning the hearing aid when Dr. Jana broke the spell of silence with the words that dashed Akash’s expectations.

“You will have to wear a hearing aid. I have thoroughly examined your ears. The nerves have dried up. You ought to have come to me much earlier. What have you been doing all these years, neglecting your ears. Your have only to blame yourself for this stamp of neglect, Mr Akash Chakraborty” declared Dr. Jana. Uma, his sister-in-law drew close to his ear drums and explained what Dr. Jana had just said. “What do I do now doctor?” Akash queried somewhat apologetically. “Does this mean my hearing condition borders on stone deafness?” he asked in desperation. Dr. Jana on perceiving the plight of his patient consoled him sympathetically with the much needed tenderness capable by a medical practitioner some of whom have psychiatric qualifications.

“Don’t worry unnecessarily. It’s nothing like that. Your will have to get used to wearing one hearing aid on your right ear for the rest of your life. Buy these from the Pearl Hearing Aid Centre and Clinic. I am writing you a prescription that you may avail yourself the benefit of better hearing facility. In the meantime, use the ear drops I am prescribing” with which he concluded his diagnosis. Again Uma took the initiative to explain to her brotherin-law of what transpired between doctor and patient, drawing her face close to his ears.

A few days later, he and his sister-in-law, Uma, headed towards the hearing aid clinic in South Kolkata. The noise and bustle of passing vehicles whizzed past honking their ear-splitting horns which mercifully seemed muffled and less piercing to his nerves while, the conversation of passerby’s seemed distant and less articulate to his blunted hearing sense. He thanked Providence for sparing him the sound and fury of the chaotic city which seemed to him in the least jarring as his impaired hearing sense had taken the edge out of its noisy impact emerging under normal conditions.

After a through diagnosis of his ear condition at the hearing aid clinic both business partners, Subrata and Sreenjoy Guha, who are behind the management, the father and son duo came to the conclusion that Akash will require to wear hearing aids in both the right and left ears. They ushered both Uma and Akash into their consulting room for further discussion. Akash’s sisterin-law whose namesake carries one of the many names of Goddess Durga and, unlike the Goddess was not at all fair complexioned but, she had a charming, wide smile somewhat like a Chesire cat and remained fixed no matter what the situation may be deemed an asset in these difficult times.

Her skin colour betrays a cross between a Durga and Kali combination, assisted Akash in his hearing difficulty whenever there was a communication gap. The father and son duo were very helpful in easing Akash’s tensions in tiding over his depression over suffering from a complex inherent in the partially deaf. The price of the hearing aid products from Denmark was quite exorbitant andcost half a lakh. Akash had to shell out ploughing through his savings to cover the cost earned from his long career as a PR consultant and manager of events managed to salvage him by dint of such emergencies.

He wrote out a cheque and presented it to the senior partner who was benevolent enough to make a discount probably overwhelmed by the simple charm of Akash. When Akash and Uma were about to leave the hearing aid clinic, the father son duo gave Akash a warning after packing and presenting Akash with the hearing aid instruments.

“Always wear these at least eight to ten hours a day (pointing to the packed products) said the senior partner Mr Guha. “It may be a bit pricey but your ears have to be saved from further deterioration. Wearing these in both ears, you will now be able to register more clear sound than our so called locally manufactured hearing aid instruments” put in the younger business partner.

“What did you say? Dicey! Why did you say dicey? Is there a risk factor wearing these hearing aids?” exclaimed Akash. Both father and son duo were in stitches when the latter intervened

“I said pricey” (loudly) into Akash’s ears as he was not wearing the hearing aids. “Not dicey from what you heard just now. However, you must put it on always except when bathing and sleeping. It must never be taken off when you are going about your outdoor work” forewarned the son. “Otherwise it may become ‘dicey’ as you put it, if ever you take them off by mistake and leave them somewhere. There are no honest people to return these precious gadgets. These may well be good as gone. Don’t take that risk and blunder.” he cautioned.

After they both left the clinic, Akash heeded the warning, at least for the moment, being the absentminded person he is by temperament; the fact of loss as a consequence had to be constantly dinned into his head by Uma, his sister-in-law, and, later by his wife, Rajkumari. But the plight of the partially deaf may be an awesome experience for an absentminded person like Akash. The fear of loss of the hearing aids constantly haunted the minds of both Rajkumari and Akash in case these were misplaced somewhere.

However, getting used to wearing them was another ordeal and botheration but, it took almost two months to make Akash adapt himself to the new situation. It must be admitted that it provided the key which opened the doors of perception to a whole new world of clear sound all round. Everything was now more frightfully audible and well articulated in the dialogue exchanges of both human and animal and moving objects coupled by the miscellaneous noise from both outside and within his immediate environs.

His ten day trip to Goa to escape the drudgery of humdrum city life, stirred the worst fears in his wife,Rajkumari. But when Akash returned safely from his vacation with his hearing aids in tact caused his wife to heave a sigh of relief. But this was not the end. There were two other incidents in Akash’s life when the worst fears of losing the hearing aids, which was least expected, was confirmed in rearing the ugly head of this negative emotion. It took place at the office of an old Auction House in the city while negotiating with its owner, Jamaluddin, for some PR work of the establishment when, Akash lost one of his hearing aids. At that time he was listening with rapt attention to the interview of the auction owner conducted by a press reporter of a renowned Bengali dailywhom Akash had arranged for the promo and publicity of the auction house as a senior PR consultant. Akash dispensed with the left ear hearing aid as it was giving him trouble in rendering him a clear reception of the sound waves of the verbal exchanges, and, placed the instrument inadvertently on the table and, later clean forget about them.

The proprietor of the Auction House disclaimed later of any such object in his possession when Akash called him later over the phone to enquire about his missing hearing aids. The information shocked Akash to discover the terrible loss of money gone down the drain. Perhaps, the tiny instrument ended up in the waste-paper basket or could some sly character knowing its value pinch it from the table to sell it off later? Two months later while on a visit to his wife’s native village in Basanti amidst the greenery of Sunderbans, Akash was relieved of his second pair of hearing aids at a seedy roadside hair dressing saloon where he had gone for a shave. .

It was while the barber was applying the shaving lather on his face which impelled him to remove his right-side hearing aid and keep the instrument just below the dressing mirror. His mind was elsewhere as usual apparently engaged in entertaining the 8 year old child being, the son of his brother-in-law, Madhumoy, when the boy was taken to the village fair organized by the State Govt. The sinister, seedy looking young barber refused to admit the possession of the hearing aid left behind in his saloon when Akash returned to the same venue to enquire about it.

Ofcourse, Akash’s wife Rajkumari was genuinely horrified on discovering the missing instrument. Being basically cool headed and pragmatic she gradually came to grips with the reality of the situation and, took a compromising stance in comforting her husband who felt handicapped without both his instruments which were literally his hearing crutch.

“Your life is much more precious to me than your prized possession. Money lost something lost, character lost, everything lost. Don’t worry I will buy you a new pair from my own savings. And, mind you never take them off whatever you do this time. I hope you hav e learnt your lesson from this mishap.”

Rajkumari, Akash’s wife had a heart of gold that drew upon reserves of loving compassion and sympathy, the rallying point in allaying much of her husband’s dark despair and inner conflict of suffering and agony derived from the loss incurred. As every cloud has a silver lining, Akash gradually braced himself to the situation and was awaiting for the silver lining after the removal of the dark clouds of despair in hope of the new pair of hearing aids to be gifted by his wife for his use in the near future.

In the meantime, he bore in mind the hidden potentiality of instant humour that lies at the root of the comedy of errors as a result of his impaired hearing sense and, ofcourse at his expense the jesting by others. Misinterpretation of the verbal exchanges by the partially deaf offer different amusing dimensions to the meaning of the spoken word substituting it with a similar sounding words drove Akash to break into an ironic smile at the very thought that provoked laughter, the deaf person being the butt end of the joke, of course.

Keeping this in mind, Akashendeavoured to overlook from momentto-moment the complexes and plight of his partially deaf world and learn to look at life from the brighter perspective for the very purpose of his survival.