Dispatches from the world of Deaf-- Beyond Silence ( Part 2)

The sign language students around me were curious to know about the topic. The answer was pretty simple.

India has arguably the largest deaf population in the world, around 4 million, but the number of interpreters can be counted on fingers! Sign language is still not an officially recognized language by the government.

At the fall’07 semester here in the US, during the welcome speech delivered by the President of the SFSU, I saw an interpreter standing there and signing in front of the audience. In all my 28 years of life in India, I had never ever witnessed any scene like that! This experience was truly new and intriguing for me. I was a bit disturbed and very inquisitive at the same time to know more about why India had no acknowledgement of this language and the community called, DEAF. I wanted to know about these people who are completely marginalized in the Indian society. That was one of the trigger points to take up this topic.

After the first visit on 9th June in that institute, I was privileged to be in constant touch with the deaf community in the city of Mumbai for almost two months. My first ten days were spent only in getting to know them, as in knowing the various members of the deaf community, interacting with them regarding their everyday challenges, aspirations, agonies, and lifestyle.

I started short listing the candidates for my interviews as well, depending on their backgrounds and experiences. It was just fascinating to choose and decide about the content of their individual interviews. To be honest, I was awfully confused in deciding who should be picked and who should be dropped. Each and every individual I met had some amazing stories to share. But I did make some choices there.

Simultaneously I started preparing on the production front. Before even going to India for the shoot, I was aware that my communication with the Deaf was possible only through an interpreter. I thought it would be all fine. But within a week I realized that not knowing the sign language could be a serious impediment in getting the desired answers from my subjects! On the flip side I also felt that my ignorance about their language and culture would help me in my objective to have a ‘peep in their lives,’ intensifying an outsider’s perspective. The objective of this documentary is definitely to peep in to their lives and understand what it is to be deaf in a country like India, specifically in a metro like Mumbai (Bombay).

I was also a bit jittery about their possible consciousness in front of the cameras. To my utter surprise, the deaf community did not have an iota of discomfort in the presence of the camera. I have seen most hearing people get conscious whenever a camera is put on their face, but for all the reasons unknown the deaf people were amazingly at ease with the camera….the camera just didn’t bother them!


I met my cameraman a week before we started shooting. He was excited about the idea as he had never shot anything like this before. My main contact person and also the content expert was my interpreter. So we were a team of three.

I chose to use two cameras for the project: PD-170 and a GS 500. After arriving in Mumbai, I discovered that the city is not the same as it was two and half years back when I left it for good.

The terrorism threat has left no corner of the world untouched, Mumbai also has been a target before being the world’s second most populous city along with the commercial, financial, and entertainment capital of India. The city is under heavy security regulations today. Most public places like the railway stations, beaches, parks etc prohibit using of cameras without permission!

The only way out was to use a camcorder 3CCD GS 500 in such places. Nobody cared about whether it was a 3 CCD or a 1 CCD, just because it was ‘silver’ looking, I could get away a zillion times by saying that I am making just a home video or taking snaps . The PD-170 camera ‘the black professional camera’ would attract lot of attention. So we avoided that in the public places. I had no money to pay for permissions. So the PD was out of question. The PD camera was primarily used for indoors; interviews etc.
Also in terms of matching the footage from both the cameras in the edit, the PD and the GS 500 came pretty close.

I did not carry any sound equipment with me because I did not have any deliberate sound! All my interviews were shot in sign language…..But here was the next challenge, how was I going to know what they spoke during the interviews, how was I going to take a call if the interview was good/bad/average?

To be continued……