Deaf in Delhi: A Memoir (Deaf Lives Series, Vol. 4) | 
 enlarge | Author: Madan Vasishta
Publisher: Gallaudet University Press
Category: Book
List Price: $29.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  2 reviews
Sales Rank: 1341841
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1st
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 216
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.8 x 5.8 x 0.6
ISBN: 1563682842
Dewey Decimal Number: 362.42092
EAN: 9781563682841
ASIN: 1563682842
Publication Date: March 15, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
In 1952, after two weeks of typhoid fever and the mumps, 11-year-old Madan Vasishta awoke one night to discover that he could no longer hear. He was horrified because in India, the word for “deaf” in all three main languages, Punjabi, Urdu, and Hindi, denoted someone who was not really human. But he was young, brash, and irrepressible, and his autobiography Deaf in Delhi: A Memoir reveals how his boundless optimism enabled him to persist and prevail.
Vasishta’s story reflects the India of his youth, an emerging nation where most people struggled with numbing poverty and depended upon close family ties, tradition, and faith to see them through. His family’s search for a cure took him to a host of medical specialists and just as many sadhus and mahatmas, holy men and priests. The school in his small village was ill-prepared to educate deaf students then, so he herded the family cattle, usually the work of hired servants. Vasishta refused to accept this as his final lot in life and fantasized constantly about better jobs. Eventually, he moved to Delhi where his dream of becoming a photographer came true. He also discovered the Delhi Deaf community that, with his family, helped him to achieve an even higher goal, traveling to America to earn a degree at Gallaudet College.
Vasishta, a natural raconteur, imbues Deaf in Delhi with the ever-present ebullience that served him so well in his journey. Readers will savor his good humor and honest observations and look forward to his next book with great relish.
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| Customer Reviews:
What a story! March 16, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
My favorite thing about Deaf in Delhi is the narrator's voice. He tells so many entertaining, heartbreaking, and funny stories from a perspective that captures him at a particular age in his life, but also with the wisdom of a man looking back at his life. A very inspiring story that easily connects reader to writer--you will feel as if you have just started a new friendship after reading it.
A great read for all friends of the deaf May 5, 2006
Madan Vasishta was struck deaf at age 11 after a bout of typhoid fever and mumps. What a remarkable story of being thrown from the hearing world into the world of deafness. This book is filled with humor and insight, and a complete lack of self-pity.
I enjoyed the depictions of village life in rural India, and the stories of all the "cures" that Vasishta was subjected to by well-meaning family and friends. Faced with many challenges, the author refused to see his deafness as a handicap.I admired his resilience and ingenuity in finding ways to get what he needed, rather than just accepting that his deafness was the result of fate or karma.
Through his perseverance and dedication to getting an education, Vasishta was able to rise from being a cowherd to being accepted as a student at Gallaudet University in the USA.
Truly, a story that inspires.
I look forward to the next book.
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