Hear! Hear!

I heaved a sigh of relief as I sighted the train chugging in at the end of the platform. It was late by an hour already and the impatient travelers on the platform got even more impatient to get in, understandably so, as the summer of Hyderabad was ruthless that year. I signaled to my wife Anjali to wait, hanging one bag over my shoulder while carrying the other in my hands as I got ready to get into the compartment. 

Once I placed both the bags inside, I signaled to her to get in. After settling in, I looked around to find the compartment full. We seemed to be the only ones to get into the train at that station in our compartment. On the opposite berth, we found what looked like a teenage boy with a middle aged couple, who from the looks of it, appeared to be his parents.

The boy had ear phones plugged into his mobile phone and was lost in his own world. When our eyes met, the man smiled at me and said "Hi I am Arun Rao. Are you people heading to Bengaluru?"

"Yes. I presume you both are too."

Replying in the affirmative, he continued to chat with me. By the time the train pulled out of the station, I learned that they lived in Bengaluru and were in Hyderabad to attend a family function. He said his son was at high school, while he worked for a private technology company. His wife, he said worked as a teacher at a school near Hebbal in Bengaluru.

I told him, I had retired while my wife was a home-maker. We were off to our annual summer stay with our son working in Bengaluru to enjoy the cooler weather in Bengaluru.

Anjali, meanwhile was looking out the window lost in her thoughts. Seeing our excited chatter, Mrs. Rao tried to get into small talk with Anjali. When she tried drawing her attention through a polite smile, Anjali fidgeted around with her bag and took out a magazine and appeared to pore over it and the smile slowly faded out of Mrs. Rao's face.

Observing all this out of the corner of my eyes, I felt quite bad about the way Anjali seemed to snub Mrs. Rao's well intended efforts. But I knew how troubled Anjali had been over the last one year during which period, her hearing had constantly been on a downhill journey. Presently, unless someone literally shouted into her ears, she hardly heard anything.

This dented her morale more than the loss of her hearing, and she had been drawing into herself steadily. I was hoping a change of place would cheer her up.

Soon it was time for dinner. As we settled down with our open tiffin boxes, Mrs. Rao tried to reach out to Anjali once again saying a bit loudly this time, "Please have a taste of this homemade stuffed brinjal curry."

Anjali who had been busy laying down newspapers on the berth, failed to hear her.

Risking backfire from Anjali, I leaned forward towards the couple and whispered "She is hard of hearing. We will take it, but you have to have a taste of our curry too."

Mrs. Rao gave me an understanding smile. We continued having our meal in silence.

When Anjali went to the washroom, Arun said "If you don't mind me asking, was Mrs. Rao born with hearing loss?"

"No, no. She started losing it rapidly over the last one year."

"Did you try putting her on a hearing aid?"

"She is quite against it somehow."

"Please don't mind my asking this. But why is she reluctant? Did she try?"

"No, no. She didn't. She thinks it's quite a bother to wear one. I feel, for some reason, she is averse to the idea of being seen with one" I said slightly embarrassed with the line of discussion. I desperately wanted the topic to change.

Sensing my embarrassment, Arun turned towards his wife and whispered something to her. Seeing Anjali coming in, all of us fell into an awkward silence once again.

Arun's teenage son got onto the upper berth and was lost in his mobile. We could hear his chuckle once in awhile as he enjoyed watching a video over Youtube.

As I was thinking of getting ourselves ready to sleep, all of a sudden Mrs Rao bent forward towards Anjali and whispered pointing to her son "My son Arjun cannot hear too."

As she mimed with her hands, Anjali could immediately catch what she was saying.

"He uses a hearing aid which is so tiny that it is hardly visible behind his ear." Mr. Rao tugged at his wife's hand in embarrassment. But I signaled to him to let her continue.

Mrs Rao had the full attention of Anjali now as she continued in a loud voice seeing that her son was lost in his own world "He started losing his hearing when he was in middle school. He refused to go to High School. That's when we put him on hearing aid and speech therapy. We are very happy that he has some friends at school now. Thanks to the hearing aid, he can listen to his favourite music too."

As I was sitting next to Anjali, I couldn't see her expression. The next day morning on reaching our destination we bid goodbye to Mr. Rao's family.

After one month's stay at Bengaluru, we were on our way back to Hyderabad. To Anjali's great delight, she found a lady of her age in the opposite seat. As she engaged with her in excitement, I was happy to find the earlier chirpy, friendly and ever-ready-to-chat Anjali back in her. A feeling of gratitude filled my heart towards Mrs Rao and the tiny hearing aid that rested at the back of Anjali's right ear.

Story is partially based on certain true life incidents.