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Submitted by PatientsEngage on 18 June 2016

Vijay Krishnamani, born with profound hearing loss in both ears, pays a tribute to his father and expresses gratitude for his overwhelming presence in his life.

Father's Day is meant to be the day when children express their thanks and gratitude towards their parents. For me, it is just one of the days in the whole year when I express my thanks to my Father and Mother for all they did for me...

My Father was an Indian Police Service officer posted in New Delhi for majority of his career. Being a police officer meant he was always beset by worries and problems that came with helping maintain law and order in one of the most complex and crowded cities in India, if not the world.

I was born with profound hearing loss in both ears which was an unexpected situation for my family. As the man of the house, my father had to summon all of his strength and energy into helping the whole family get together and channelise their collective energies into helping me learn how to hear and talk. It meant a lot of sacrifice for a man in his thirties and in the early stages of his career (a time when couples want to party and enjoy life). To my everlasting gratitude, both my parents resisted taking the easy way out and chose to tread the difficult path of making me learn how to hear. Do note this was in the early 80s when there was very limited support and awareness about hearing impairment in India. My father changed his whole lifestyle to ensure it revolved around my education which was intensive. Getting up at 4am in the morning to teach me before I went to nursery/school and spending all of his time outside of office hours to educate me at every possible opportunity, converting his holidays into education drives for me and more... Come what may, my father and mother were always by my side. As I grew up and made mistakes, father was always there to advise and correct me. He fought for me, stood with me during the times I felt low, celebrated the times I did well and kept pushing me to do more in life.

I got married 6 years ago and over the last few years have come to recognise and understand better the amount of effort involved in being in a marriage and dealing with all its complexities. This has only increased my respect and gratitude towards my father for whatever he did for me.

My dear mother passed away in 2010. There are no words to describe the impact this had on my father. However, even in those trying times, he still educated me through his actions (and with amazing support from my elder brother and sister-in- law) on how important it was to continue to live life and do one's utmost for society. My parents, along with other amazing parents, had cofounded a non-profit organization called Suniye for hearing impaired children in 1995, and since then have done yeomen service by helping over 1000 hearing impaired children learn how to listen, speak, read, write and join mainstream society.

In 2004, my father retired from service as the Director General of Police, Civil Service & Home Guards and, thereafter till 2012, worked as Chief Executive Officer at Chhattarpur Mandir in south of Delhi. Since then he has been working fulltime managing Suniye. At 72, my father has been going to Suniye support school six days a week and he continues to inspire and amaze me with his energy and zeal. 

In the last few years, as I became more mature and understood what really mattered in life, I have been increasingly devoting all my free time towards helping Suniye in every possible way, whether by speaking about it or raising funds to help educate our hearing impaired children. People often ask me why I work so much for Suniye. The answer is simple 'This is a very small way of saying thanks to all that my Father and Mother did for me'.

Thank you dear father and mother for all that you have done for all of us. Every morning, I wake up fuelled by the thought 'What should I do today to make my parents proud of me'.

Vijay Krishnamani is currently working as Associate consultant at TCS, Singapore and is global coordinator and ex-student of Suniye, a Delhi based non-profit NGO that empowers hearing impaired children. You can also donate to Suniye.