HEARING AND SPEECH IMPAIRED: This youngster’s achievements make a loud statement

Jalandhar, November 3

As they say, when one loses a sense, others are enhanced! This adage is well proven by 28-year-old Abhimanyu Mehta. He is focused, active, dedicated, dreamer and an achiever.

Abhimanyu was born with a hearing impairment and hence could not speak also, but his work and achievements are loud enough to be heard by others.

Mehta, who is working in a private university in Jalandhar where he assists in the department of students affairs, is a cricket star too.

He got selected for the Deaf Cricket Asia Cup last year and was part of the Indian cricket team that won the Asia Cup. The match was held in Hyderabad.

Mehta, along with the team, was honoured by former President Pranab Mukherjee, making it the brightest moment of his life.

Son of a single mother, Abhimanyu’s demeanour clearly speaks of his confident nature. His working mother, Rekha Mehta, says that he is shy too.

The journey of raising her son was not easy, but Rekha is a strong woman. Sharing her experiences, she said when she got to know about the problem, she was taken aback. “But that didn’t stop me, I was strong enough to raise him and earlier I got him admitted to a normal school and found that he was getting special treatment there, which I never wanted, so I got him shifted to the school for the deaf,” said the mother.

She said she didn’t want her son to be given special treatment. “I wanted him to be rough and tough,” said Rekha. She said that he does lip reading and speaks a few words, but they both don’t interact with each other in sign language as the mother doesn’t know it.

Sharing his craze for cricket, Rekha said Abhimanyu would wake up at 3 in the morning and go on his cycle to learn cricket.

People would say I must take care of him and should not allow him to go, but I wanted to see him strong in which, I feel, I have become successful now,” said Rekha.

He goes shopping and is a gadget freak and a bhangra lover too.

Abhimanyu had gone through speech therapy too when he was a third grader and the therapy continued up to two years.

His mother has kept pictures of Abhimanyu with West Indies player Kieron Pollard and Sri Lankan star Lasith Malinga.

Against all odds
Twentyeight-year-old Abhimanyu Mehta was selected for the Deaf Cricket Asia Cup last year and was part of the Indian cricket team that won the Asia Cup. Mehta, along with the team, was honoured by former President Pranab Mukherjee, making it the brightest moment of his life.