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“My school’s special educator is my role model. I want to become a teacher like him”

It was Diwali in 2010 and fireworks were lighting up the Andamans. M. Nadumaran, a construction worker, and his wife Rajeswari observed that their two-and-a-half-year-old daughter Deepika didn’t flinch when crackers exploded near her. “It was the first time we started doubting whether something was wrong,” says Nadumaran (43), adding, “She was born a ‘normal’ child.” He suspects that the injections to bring down the high fever she had at 18 months might have done the damage.
 
The couple took their (at the time) only child to the government-run GB Pant Hospital in Port Blair where the doctors, after testing her hearing, apparently told her parents she would need an “operation” for which they would have to go to Chennai. “We took her to Chennai; fortunately we had relatives there so we could stay with them. But at the hospital we discovered the operation would cost Rs 12 lakh,” Nadumaran narrates. “The doctors advised us to give her speech therapy.”
 
They took her to a private clinic where she was fitted with a hearing aid and was trained in how to use it. More than six months passed before they returned home from Chennai. At first they tried admitting her to a private school near their home but did not succeed. Then Nadumaran met the Director of Education to plead his case, and received an official letter from him that gained Deepika admission to the PM Shri Government Senior Secondary School in Bambooflat.
 
This school has a special educator, Ranjan Kumar Biswas, who handles all the disabled pupils. “In this school the parents of Deaf children must first learn Indian Sign Language (ISL) so they can help the child learn it,” Nadumaran explains. “My wife and I both learnt ISL. We all use sign language at home.” Initially a caregiver had to remain with the child at school and Nadumaran quit working to take up this responsibility. However, he couldn’t sustain it for longer than six months – he was the sole earning member – and Rajeswari took over from him.
 
Deepika (18) has a younger sister Damini (13), who is in Class 8 and also learnt ISL, and a little brother, Rudransh (4). Damini used to play the role of big sister and look after Deepika in school and bring her home when their parents could not go pick them up. Deepika has completed Class 12. When our EGS interviewer contacted the family she was away visiting her maternal grandmother and it was her father who spoke to us about her.
 
“Deepika gets up early in the morning and does pooja (worship),” he told us. “She loves cooking; she watches videos online and keeps experimenting with different kinds of dishes. She is also good at drawing. Maths is a subject she likes. She enjoys watching TV especially the comedy-drama, Taarak_ _Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah.” 
 
The proud father tells us that Deepika is a role model for many. Ranjan Kumar Biswas takes her to meetings and conferences to demonstrate how a person with impaired hearing can lead a life like everyone else. When she goes on such trips her expenses are taken care of and she is paid an honorarium. Nadumaran says, “We feel very grateful to Ranjan-sir who has been teaching Deepika since Class 1. Whatever she has been able to achieve is just because of this kind soul, and he continues to guide her and us.”
 
Mr Biswas is no ordinary teacher – he is himself a role model, as a recipient of the National Awards to Teachers which he received from the President of India, Droupadi Murmu, in 2022 for his exemplary work with disabled students. Although Deepika’s schoolteachers have advised her to take up vocational training – a course in computers, for instance – so she can get a government job, her heart is set on becoming a teacher like her teacher! She aims to pursue higher education, and doing a B.Ed is her goal – a goal that her doting parents hope to help her attain.