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She's come
into the spotlight with her support to Sanjay Leela Bhansali's
film Black. But, over the years, Beroz Vacha has been playing a
far more important role, opening up a whole new world for the
Deafblind in India, finds Nilanjana Sengupta |
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In
1977, Beroz Vacha founded the Helen Keller
Institute for the Deaf & Deafblind in
Mumbai in honour of the Deafblind women who
did pioneering work for the disabled. The
Institute is in the spotlight today. Vacha's
students taught actors Rani Mukherji and
Amitabh Bachchan sin language so they could portray
a speech-impaired Deafblind girls and her
teacher in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's film Black.
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When
asked how she feels about the critical acclai the film
has received, the 76 year old pauses before saying.
"I am happy for Sanajy, I am happy for Sanajy, I
am happy for Black" |
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For Vacha, her role in opening up a whole new
world for the Deafblind in India has been much more
significant. often referred to as the 'mother of Indian sign
language', she was the first to bring in the concept of
total communication that includes touch, in addition to sign
language and finger spelling sentences in the palm. When the
feisty lady crossed the finish line of the Mumbai Marathon's
Harmony sponsored Silver Run this January, alongside
Rajinder Singh Sethi a visually challenged and hearing
impaired teacher of Braille, not many knew her. Now, more
people know her name, after the credits of the film
acknowledged her support. Vacha was pleasantly surprised. "A
credit line is too insignificant for someone like her,"
says Bhansali, who first met Vacha in 1994 before making hi
debut film Khamoshi on a hearing and speech impaired
couple. "After the three hours I spent with her, I knew
I ad found my Anne Sullivan [a blind Irish woman who was
governess and mentor to Helen Keller]." The filmmaker
had no doubt that Vacha would lend her support to Black.
"She may not have given birth to them, but she is her
students' mother," he says. |
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acha, a
Parsi from Mumbai, plays the role perfectly - she is
stern, fiercely protective and, at times, downright
indulgent. She won't let her students fall, but she
won't hold them either, |
letting
them learn their way through life. "Bachchan's
character in Black is modeled on Beroz and
Sullivan," reveals Bhansali. The similarities are
striking, but they end on the screen. Once the tinsel
wears off and the veneration dies down, it is to
Vacha's school that journalists flock for the real
picture.
Don with the
interviews - they took up much of her time after Black
released - Vacha is back at work. There are people
from other Deafblind organizations to meet, and
letters to send. "I'm just part of a wheel
that keeps turning," she says. |
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During her 27-year tenure at the
Helen Keller Institute, the wheel has turned many times. The
number of students has gone up from three to 150. From a municipal
building in Byculla to the more spacious Aditya Birla Centre at
Vashi, the infrastructure has also come a long way. The Institute
at Vashi has swimming pool for hydrotherapy, occupational therapy
facility, an indoor gymnasium, and classrooms. Financial support
and donation trickle from individual group donors - a bulk of it
for the Vashi centre same from Rajashreeji Birla, wife of the Late
Aditya Birla.
Through paucity of funds is a
serious concern, Vacha has not waited for things to happen. Over
the years, she has cajoled her way into the coffers of friends,
well-wishers and philanthropists. Sense International India, a
branch of the UK-base international organization for the
Deafblind, sent her on a fund-raising trip across Europe in 1996
for the construction of the Vashi centre.
Cont...2 |
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