Part I
What started as a rather uneventful check-in to an airport
hotel turned out to be quite something else. Lemon Tree Hotel at Indira Gandhi International Airport looks cool, modern and smells slightly like lemons. We
were tired after the trip from Kathmandu and rushing through the checkpoints to
send our VVIP (Very Very Important Person) Jari on his vacation after having been delayed on the runway.
The guy who helped me to my hotel room was quiet but
attentive. Did the usual, followed me into the room, put the bag up and when I
tried to explain my lack of cash for a tip, again no words, lots of smiling and showing things in the room. Ah. The visualness
look. He was deaf. I waved and walked to shut the door behind him. I thought
twice that maybe I was wrong. Maybe this was the way he thought there would be the least
misunderstanding with a tired, middle-aged westerner who didn't speak Hindi.
Khaleda and I decided to meet up, to debrief, to start the
report writing, to figure out why our last visit did not include cookies, the
usual. We ate a nice dinner, buffet style. While I was looking around at the
food one of the restaurant personnel came up to help me, again only gestures.
This time I was ready. I just signed “Hey, are you Deaf?” with Swedish signs (not
rude in Deaf culture as I understand. If it is I haven’t been able to tell.) … and
surprise, surprise. Our conversation took off. We both looked extremely happy.
We exchanged some signs and answered some questions and just enjoyed being there
signing, at least I did. Well, him too, he looked pretty damn happy. I was remembering
one of my sign language teachers who told me he used to be a baker but not
being able to communicate fully with anyone at work made him depressed actually
so he went back to school to be able to teach, act, perform, do something else where he could converse. Anyway I just
thought that was the same situation for this guy, hard being the only one and
excluded.
I went back to the table, told Khaleda about him, saw him a
few more times. Khaleda said she had seen him, too and mentioned she had seen
another Deaf guy too. I thought probably not. We paid and turned in for the
night.
At breakfast the next morning, my new acquaintance came straight up to
me, greeted me and went into signing. I probably understood 30% of the actual
content but I knew the message was very clear and positive. Basically “hello
friend, it is a great thing that we have sign language and that there are lots
of signing people, which you are one (this is where I got part of it wrong, he
was telling me he told the others who worked there that I signed with him). We
are united in this big world…” something like that. Again I went back to the
table, and then it sunk in. There were not only five Deaf employees on duty,
the rest of the staff knew basic Indian Sign Language, too. About 20-30 Deaf
people were employed there or through the hotel chain. (Remember now, my
communication skills are challenged in multiple ways on this trip.)
This whole set up is just not what I expected
(misconceptions being my new middle name). Remember the context though. I just
left an area of the world where one of the reasons girls don’t get an education
is because they are considered unclean when they are menstruating and you just
can never tell when they are on their cycles, can you? I was still processing.
I say that a lot these days.
Part II
Khaleda saw the hearing staff signing. She picks up on
things a lot faster than I do. I said thank you to my waiter for the coffee and
he left then the other waiter came up and said he cannot hear you. I suppose
they do that a lot if guests don’t take notice and might think it rude that
they don’t reply. You see, even the hearing staff are reading the guests’
signals to make sure they see that some of the staff are Deaf so everyone there
seems to be meta-communicating. This is just too cool, was all I could think.
I made the comment that there might not be any females who
were Deaf working there. Wrong again. By the time we got out of there we had
connected through Messenger with two Deaf staff, one female, taken four sets of
pictures, first just for our fieldwork and then just because we were all having
so much fun.
I told Khaleda that I was looking forward to telling Bengt
about this. He is currently involved in a Swedish General Inheritance Fund project to
develop a certificate for companies and employers who hire people with
intellectual disability (ID) so they could raise the bar and start making their
workplaces more inclusive, both for the public and private sector. So of course
Khaleda had already seen that one of the workers had Down Syndrome. I asked if
I could meet him and of course they said yes. They even asked me if I knew it was World Down Syndrome Day… understandable considering
they seem to be a lot more on top of things than most.
His name is Dhruv. He is 25. I asked about his job, if he
worked in the kitchen, he said yes but the manager added, “No ma’am, he works
in service”. I take this as that his superior wanted me to understand fully
that he is responsible for waiting on
and clearing tables as well. I told the young guy about why we are so curious
and what we work with and all that. He looked pleased but probably was thinking
that it didn’t take much to make me happy. He was just a guy at work.
Regardless, this was just the most unforgettable ending to our work trip.
Part III
It turns out the staff have monthly Indian Sign Language
classes. Everyone signs more or less. I went to the front desk to ask about the
book that is in all our hotel rooms at the Lemon Tree. Khaleda had heard about
it, wanted to buy it so of course if Khaleda thinks something is a good idea I
don’t need to overthink it. It’s called My
Little Epiphanies by Aisha Chaudhary.
I go to the front desk, ask for a copy since the one from my
room was missing. It takes a minute to get the message across. There was
another woman, hotel staff, listening in or getting me change so I could tip
properly. She started talking up the book to her clueless colleague behind the
counter and added something to me about the documentary by Onir called “Raising the Bar”(just
got more homework to do). Then this hotel clerk tells me her mother is actually
president of the NGO the hotel chain works with, Muskann, an NGO (Muskaanthengo.org).
Not only that, she had previously worked in the section of the hotel, called
The Sustainability Initiative, which trains staff as well as people with
disabilities to work there.
So, there you have it. When we go back in August we know
where will be staying when we are in Delhi. Since we just learned an enormous
amount of how to get things done, we both have a feeling others would like to
know more about this. We certainly would.
I wonder if they have a type of certification program so we
could choose hotels according to their hiring policies.
Thanks to the employees in Citrus Café: Dhruv, Sandeep and Seema. Hope to see them in August.
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