The sound of victory
Panipat born Nishtha’s long and impressive list of accomplishments include being a judo and lawn tennis champion. She also went on to bag the coveted Miss Deaf Asia 2018 title held in Prague. Interestingly she is the first Indian to win the contest since its inception in 2001
Nishtha Dudeja shares her remarkable story of being born completely deaf to winning the Miss Deaf Asia and being the voice of the hearing impaired
“My childhood was imperfectly perfect. There were many happy moments and many rejections too. Some kids would touch or try to take out my hearing aid. But I learned to handle them in due course as my parents had prepared me for these things before sending me to school. They made me believe that the only difference between me and everyone else was that I needed a hearing aid to listen to what they were saying,” says Dudeja
There are two kinds of people: the ones who let obstacles become roadblocks and the ones who use them as staircases. Nishtha Dudeja is an amazing, tenacious woman who falls in the latter category. She also happens to be profoundly deaf.
Panipat born Nishtha’s long and impressive list of accomplishments include being a judo and lawn tennis champion. She also went on to bag the coveted Miss Deaf Asia 2018 title held in Prague. Interestingly she is the first Indian to win the contest since its inception in 2001. But for Dudeja her biggest achievement is to be able is to speak and communicate with people. “This may sound insignificant to many but it is a big achievement for someone like me who was born 100 percent deaf. I am fluent in Hindi as well as English. Most hearing impaired people are not even able to speak let alone master any language. They are sent to deaf schools where language is not given any priority. Inability to express their thoughts and feelings leads to isolation and eventually dropping out of school. You will rarely see hearing impaired people especially those born with severe to profound hearing loss reaching college level. So as a result, they end up doing small jobs,” explains Dudeja.
NEVER SAY DIE ATTITUDE
Dudeja’s parents were shattered when they realised that their threeyear-old hyper-active daughter was unable to hear anything. After consulting with a speech therapist they admitted her to a regular school as against a special school for the deaf and put her through some rigorous speech therapy sessions. Fighting all the odds and trying to fit into a childhood that was challenging, Nishtha constantly raised the bar and broke all stereotypes surrounding deafness. “My childhood was imperfectly perfect. There were many happy moments and many rejections too. Some kids would touch or try to take out my hearing aid. But I learned to handle them in due course as my parents had prepared me mentally for these things before sending me to school. They always made me believe that the only difference between me and everyone else was that I needed a hearing aid to listen to what they were saying,” says Dudeja. Her mother Poonam also studied the subject and practised with her at home.
CALL OF THE SPORTS
At the age of 7, Dudeja started learning judo and then tennis at age 12. Tons of dedication and hardwork led to her participating in Deaflympics 2013 held in Sofia, Bulgaria, World Deaf Tennis Championship 2015 held in Nottingham, UK and Deaflympics 2017 in Samsun, Turkey. When a jaw injury forced her to retire from competitive tennis in 2017, Dudeja knew it was time to look for other challenges. Between all this work, she also managed to complete her B.Com from Ventakeshwara College in Delhi University, maneuver into the spotlight by winning the Miss Deaf Asia 2018 and in the process become an outspoken voice of the deaf in India. And, again, she won. Her TED Talk of February 2019 was very well received. And it is this drive that sets her apart. Dudeja credits her success to her parents who taught her to never give up in life. “I’d rather struggle and fail, than seek sympathy and succeed. People think deaf people are dumb too. All you need is a little patience while interacting with a hearing impaired person, as he/ she may not be able to understand your conversation if you speak fast. People need to be sensitive towards differently abled persons without being sympathetic."
BEYOND TIARAS
Currently the multi-faceted woman is on a mission to teach the world to listen in different ways. “Deafness is not only poorly understood, it is often a subject of ridicule in conversations, movies and even standup comedy shows. I fail to understand what’s so funny about a complex problem. I want to create awareness about problems of the hearing impaired and the technological solutions available to them,” says Dudeja who is now in Mumbai to pursue her MA in Economics. The forced break due to the pandemic has instilled a renewed drive to get back to reading, cooking and also practicing her dance moves.
This 26-year-old is truly living up to her name ‘Nishtha’ which in Sanskrit means firm determination.