|| WORLD HEARING DAY. HEARING CARE FOR ALL ||

HEARING is very important for our communication. Hearing senses in the form of physical organs are important and we need to take care of our ears and as a philosophical way, hearing others carefully is equally important. As an audiologist and speech-language pathologist for 29 years and in today’s difficult time, I have felt that hearing others carefully is more important than hearing perfectly through your ears. If we see a child who is deaf (hearing impaired), that child is seen differently compared to a child who is normal and going through some difficulties or has frustration or anxiety. We, sometimes, don’t hear their difficulties. A child or person who goes into depression and sometimes gives their own life. Though we are normal and the other person is also normal but apathy is when we don’t hear each other’s heart. If we care for the hearing of our near and dear ones then we can save a lot of lives and we can live more meaningful lives.

Our Krishna used to listen to all the people in need. Be it his parents, Vasudev-Devki or Nand-Yashoda for their guidance or the gwal and gopis for their friendship or any Vrijvasi who used to face difficulties or the Pandavas to support them to save dharma or Draupadi who was in difficulty. Krishna used to hear the heart of the people who used to believe in him or who used to pray for him, whenever they used to call him in need. Our culture, our Indian society are appreciated all over the world for following Krishna’s qualities. Compared to any other countries, rehabilitation in any area is much faster in India for fighting against any diseases as we have the warmth of each other being around us. That warmth comes when we take care of hearing each other through our hearts. Just question why we have stopped hearing through our hearts??? Don’t you think it’s the need of the day??? We can save many lives and change by following that...

WHO has started to celebrate World Hearing Day every year on 3rd March for the last few years. This year’s theme is "Hearing Care For All". They are also publishing the world report on hearing this year. This is concerned with people having hearing problems over the world and making people aware of hearing (ear- as an organ) to be taken care of. But what about hearing people with care in our day to day life in a natural way? How can the study of that be done? How can we learn to hear our poor near and dear ones with our heart? I have seen so many kids who don’t have time to listen to their old parents. I’ve seen husbands not having the time to hear their wives’ desires, wives not having the time to hear their husbands’ hard work; corporate owners don’t have the time to hear their employees' concerns and employees don’t have the time to hear owners’ difficulties to run the company. Many politicians or leaders don’t have the time to hear their people who are in need and people don’t have the time to hear their leaders who have so many people to manage.

In my studies, I have learned that we hear through our brain. We fit hearing aids to an individual’s requirement. We train them to hear through hearing aids and teach them to learn, to hear language and speech understood by all. We train them that those who hear with sincerity and focus achieve things like any normal person and lead a normal life. I taught them to hear with hearing aids and friends, let me tell you, I learned to hear through my heart from them. I still remember once I had a headache and I was feeling a little down. One of my deaf students came to the clinic and he saw me not in a good mood. He said, “Can I help you, ma’am?” I said, “No. It’s just a headache. I will be fine” He said, “No ma’am. Don’t worry, I know a healing method. Can I use that so you will recover faster?” Seeing his concern for me, I said ok and you won’t believe, his goodness to help me or his healing technique worked so well that my headache was gone and I started feeling so good! Do you think that in this fast and hectic schedule, we care for hearing each other out? No. No one will do as promptly as these children can! I, every day, see that they not only hear through their ears with hearing aids but also with care for those around them.

Today, we have started hearing through Bluetooth but have stopped listening to our near and dear ones. Technology has made people with hearing impairment hear like normal people and lead a normal life. But with the technological revolution, normal people have moved away to hear with care for their own people. Hearing, listening and thinking are very important for language learning. In the same way, hearing with care for others also improves our listening and thinking about others. Krishna had built technology in his heart so he used to hear peoples' pain from wherever they were. In this scientific revolution, we don't have time to hear the person sitting next to us. We have learned to listen only when we need to and what is required for us to hear or you can say when we feel like hearing.

I still remember I had gone to meet one of the personalities of the film industry. I intended to meet that celebrity and request to come to one of our functions and encourage deaf kids to feel that they should lead a normal life and they should be given a platform like other normal children. Now, this celebrity knew that we had come to meet. They were busy getting dressed and had some meetings. Their willingness to meet us was not there. Rather than hearing or saying sorry, they just made us wait. After four hours of waiting, we got to hear that there is no possibility to meet. I don't understand that in the beginning only they should've communicated to us that they were not ready to meet. The same celebrities, when they launch their new song or new film want all of us to hear the same! Why is there a discrepancy in hearing each other?? Here, I just feel that if they can't, they should just say no. No one will force anyone to hear what they don't want to. This needs to be heard by all the personalities who don't have the heart to hear. If they decide, it's not difficult for them as well. For that, they just need to have a heart like people who are disabled with a special ability.

Listening to music is soothing and especially hearing melodious bhajans of Krishna gives us more soothing. Similarly, hearing good words of warmth, appreciation or love of dear ones gives us soothing. Many stammerers or people who have difficulty in speaking or doing any act of stage performance feel nervous. If once, the people who try to hear them do it with care, they will feel so happy. They feel someone is there for them who is ready to hear. I still have so many clients who would stammer and I helped them to overcome those challenges just by hearing what they have to say. Today, they are successful and whenever they do some new adventure to talk or achieve any small things in life, they do come to tell me. That has made me understand how important it is to hear with care.

In today's time, in today's world, it is very important to hear each other with our heart. It is very important, apart from just hearing. In my efforts of spreading positivity through my articles, I present these stories to read and hear for you all. Life has problems and has solutions in itself. Let's, on this World Hearing Day, decide to hear with all the people with hearing difficulty, to learn, to hear through our good ears and also through our heart so that we all can together make this world more beautiful for God to hear...