The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Smiles and sign language conveyed meaning in this tournament

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Wednesday, Jul 02, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Smiles and sign language conveyed meaning in this tournament

Aloysius Xavier Lopez

The chess championship has increased the enthusiasm of the participants

Only those who could decipher Gopinath’s language of silence understood and reacted
The 34-year-old champion has been playing chess for the past 13 years

— Photo: R.Shivaji Rao

DEEP IN THOUGHT: Gopinath (left), thinking about his next move during the Chennai Open Chess Competition for the Hearing Impaired in Chennai on Sunday.

CHENNAI: G. Gopinath’s smile and sign language after his triumph in the Chennai Open Silent Chess Championship seemed to be loaded with meaning.

Yet only those who had the privilege to decipher his language of silence understood it and reacted accordingly, getting an inkling of how he was feeling after having obtained a victory despite the many hurdles that he had had to cross in life.

His sign language, to those who could understand and decipher it read, “I am very happy.”

Happy

Yet his body language conveyed some gloom at a remote part of his psyche. What could it be, and how had he surmounted the obstacles in his path?

The 34-year-old Gopinath started playing chess 13 years ago and the game had been a source of consolation to him, for there was much else that he could not enjoy.

He was able to enjoy school life only till class VI in the Clark school for the hearing impaired.

Monetary constraints his parents faced made them put him in a mainstream school.

He was unable to cope with the change and failed in class VIII. He dropped out of school and it looked as if his ambitions were destined not to be fulfilled in any satisfying way.

The one-year fitter course at the Government Vocational Rehabilitation Centre for Handicapped, Guindy, too could not fetch him his dream job with the Indian Railways as fitter.

His answer in sign language to what he wanted to achieve in life was: “A job with the Railways.”

For him, there were tough times to face, in everyday life, but he was not one to let this get in the way of what he wanted to accomplish.

“While the visually impaired are given stipend by the government, the hearing impaired are not given stipend.

“So persons with hearing impairment who don’t have proper jobs suffer a lot,” says M.S.P. Kulandaisamy, who is a member of the Tamil Nadu Sports Council for the Deaf.

“The child who is unable to speak or hear will face a serious learning problem if not trained by special experts, he adds. “The future of that child will be at stake,” he explains.

V.R.Venkatesan, who is the organising secretary of the Silence Brotherhood had this to say about the situation, “The Chess Championship has increased the enthusiasm among the fraternity of the hearing impaired.”

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