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    "result": {"pageContext":{"language":"en","pathURL":"n.-deepika","isDefaultLanguage":true,"storyData":{"Name":"N. Deepika","Alt_Photos":null,"Alt_Text_Photo1":"Mid shot of N. Deepika (18) sitting behind an old-fashioned, black, foot-operated, treadle sewing machine with a tan-coloured wooden table. She wears a rose-pink T-shirt and her long black hair has a side parting and flows down her back and shoulders. Her right hand is on the wheel and her left hand holds a piece of dark sky blue fabric in place beneath the needle. ","Alt_Text_Photo2":"Deepika is outdoors, sitting on a small grey concrete brick with her knees drawn up against her chest. She wears ash-grey shorts and full-sleeved, round-necked, cotton knit shirt with horizontal stripes of white and salmon pink. The ground is light chocolate brown soil, uneven, with fallen light brown dried arecanuts scattered here and there. Sitting on the ground next to Deepika is a reddish brown rooster with its claws tucked under its belly. It has a red comb and wattles. Deepika is stroking its back with her right hand while her left hand holds a circular stainless steel container. ","Alt_Text_Photo3":"Deepika sits cross-legged on a thick beige-brown rug on a plain greenish-grey cemented floor. She wears ash-grey shorts and a blood-red, short-sleeved, round-necked top with small, sky-blue flowers embroidered on the bust. Tresses of her wavy hair fall down each shoulder and across her chest. A large, fat, open textbook is in front of her with black lettering on white pages. Resting on her lap there is a long, thick notebook like a ledger. She is writing in it with a light blue ballpoint pen held in her right hand.","Alt_Text_Photo4":"Mid shot of Deepika in her red embroidered top standing in front of a twin-burner stainless steel gas stove.  Chocolate brown corrugated tin sheets form the walls and sloping roof of the room. There is a steel vessel on the right burner. She is about to light the left burner with a steel gas-lighter in her right hand while her left hand is turning the knob of the burner. On the light grey table top in front of the stove there is a round steel tray in which there are three small, pale sky-blue mugs.","Alt_Text_Photo5":"Deepika sits with her family in a row. All are sitting cross-legged on an uneven, rough, beige cemented floor. From left to right: grandmother P. Jayalaxmi Devi (55), mother N. Rajeswari (37), Deepika, and father M. Nadumaran (43) with her brother Rudransh (4) on his lap. Jayalaxmi, with her body slightly tilted to the right, is looking at Nadumaran who is smiling. Rajeswari and Rudransh are looking at each other and smiling broadly. Deepika is smiling slightly while looking at the camera. Jayalaxmi wears an orange nighty. Rajeswari wears a three-fourth-sleeved mushroom pink nighty printed with a design of black vines and tiny blue and white flowers. Her hair is backcombed and tied back and she has a vertical streak of blood-red sindoor in the centre of her eyebrows and another in the centre of her forehead where the hairline begins. A white synthetic scarf with red polka dots is wound around her neck with the ends trailing down her chest. Deepika wears a pista-green salwar-kameez set. Around her neck and down her chest she has draped a dupatta in the same shade, with parallel silver lines running down its length, and dark green leafy motifs printed here and there. Nadumaran, who has a thick black moustache, wears charcoal grey trousers and a half-sleeved knitted shirt with horizontal bands of chocolate brown and smoky-grey. Rudransh wears shorts in tiny brown and white plaid checks. His white, round-necked, sleeveless cotton knit shirt is printed with a few large black symbols that resemble alphabetical and numerical signs. The wall behind them is made of brown, woven bamboo cane. To the right the wall is broken by a door made of wooden planks painted sky blue.","Alt_Text_Video":null,"Photo1_URL":"https://egsweb.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/N_Deepika/_O2A6117.jpg","Photo2_URL":"https://egsweb.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/N_Deepika/_O2A6083.jpg","Photo3_URL":"https://egsweb.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/N_Deepika/_O2A5939.jpg","Photo4_URL":"https://egsweb.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/N_Deepika/_O2A5920.jpg","Photo5_URL":"https://egsweb.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/N_Deepika/_O2A6000.jpg","Name_English":"N. Deepika","Language":"en","Disability":["recxiHVc0FinkZpyx"],"Gender":"Female","Instagram_Content":"M. Nadumaran, a construction worker, and his wife Rajeswari from the Andamans observed that their two-and-a-half-year-old daughter Deepika didn’t flinch when Diwali crackers exploded near her. It was the first time they suspected she couldn’t hear. They took her to the government-run GB Pant Hospital in Port Blair where the doctors confirmed her deafness.\n\nDeepika, now 18, went to the PM Shri Government Senior Secondary School in Bambooflat, which has a special educator, Ranjan Kumar Biswas. “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. “Everyone at home knows ISL.” Deepika completed Class 12. She has a younger sister Damini (13), who is in Class 8, and a little brother, Rudransh (4). Deepika is an early riser, loves cooking (she watches videos online and keeps experimenting with different kinds of dishes), is good at drawing, like Maths as a subject, and enjoys watching TV especially the comedy-drama, Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah. \n\nThe 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. Nadumaran says, “We feel very grateful to Ranjan-sir. 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 a recipient of the National Awards to Teachers which he received in 2022 for his exemplary work with disabled students. Deepika’s heart is set on becoming a teacher like her teacher! She aims to pursue higher education and get a B.Ed degree.\n","Quote":"“My school’s special educator is my role model. I want to become a teacher like him”","Status":"Published","Video":null,"Website_Content":"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.\n \nThe 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.”\n \nThey 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.\n \nThis 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.\n \nDeepika (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.\n \n“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.” \n \nThe 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.”\n \nMr 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.\n","State_name":"Andaman and Nicobar","Display_Order":261}}},
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