Sajad, who is born deaf was sitting on the top of the stacked hay that was being transported in a tractor. On the way, the tractor had to pass under a transmission line and the tractor driver was supposed to inform Sajad beforehand about the same to avert any harm to him, he did it but not with the help of sign language; instead, what he did was that he shouted at Sajad and to which the latter responded nonchalantly. Fortunately, there was a power outage at that time when the tractor passed under the transmission line, but as the saying goes “misfortunes never come singly”. Sajad on seeing the transmission line very near to him jumped alarmingly from the tractor and ended up in hospital. It has been so many years since this tragic incident took place but the tractor driver still feels regretful about whatever happened on that fateful day. The driver damns his memory and everyone else does the same, they put the whole blame on the tractor driver.
Sajad who wished to be known by his first name only, has no reason to blame anyone for the tragedy he met because it all happened inadvertently. But he feels sad about his hearing impairment not just because it was the reason of why he jumped from the tractor and thereof breaking his bones, but he particularly feels sorry about his disability because he can never be called a listener.
Sajad makes some gestures towards one of my friend, who knows the sign language and makes him understand that it hurts to realize that my hearing impairment has become the verdict of my ‘incapability’ to help people.
My friend Zubair takes a pause before converting the gestures of Sajad into words for me. “My friends and family prefer to stay away from me whenever they go through any problems or face any emotional turmoil,” Zubair tells me.
Zubair who acted as an interpreter helped me to write a verbatim account of his communication with Sajad and here I am quoting the same… “Whenever I see anyone among my nears and dears sad, no matter whatever I try to do, I always end up becoming the reason of why they reach their bursting point. The best i can do in such situations is that I request them not to cry. There was a time when I would behave reluctantly during such situations so that people could make me understand the problem which they are facing. But it took me so long to learn that I am just annoying the people whenever I coax them to make me understand the context of their problems. I also realized this important thing that the problems of others demand to be heard first (which I am not capable of) and then only we can understand them.”
we are not even ready to listen when others tell us our own problems
At first, my intention was to go mainstream in narrating this story but then something, I witness on daily basis made me to change the essence of this story. Whenever I travel in a bus or cab I see those people who plug in earphones to their phones just not to listen what other people have to say.
Some days before, I was travelling in a cab and was seated at the backside of it, there were other three persons sitting with me and all of them had put on earphones. After travelling a distance of few kilometres, I found the door of the cab ajar and told the other person to close it properly who was seated besides me and to which he just grinned. I got into the feeling of avoidance and decided not to disturb him again and meanwhile, the driver had to brake suddenly as some vehicle was making a U-turn, as soon as our cab came to a halt, the door of the vehicle opened abruptly and the person was almost thrown out of the vehicle. God forbid, If the person would have got injured, I was not to be blamed for the same as I had forgotten to use a sign language but the accident would have been blamed on him for forgetting to listen. Unlike Sajad who is anxious about listening to problems of others, we are not even ready to listen when others tell us our own problems.
Ps. I made up these two stories; now I leave it for readers to decide what to make of them.
(The author a student of international relations at IUST regularly contributes for the edit page of “Kashmir Horizon”. Views are his personal)
