Reportedly forty five students stood in three lines as three songs, famously adored by Mahatma Gandhi, played. Meanwhile the students, wearing orange, white and green the colors of the Indian flag adeptly expressed the lyrics in sign language. Apparently a video of the same was officially released on Gandhi Jayanti in Thiruvananthapuram and the presentation is called Satyameva.
Furthermore it was a teacher named Silvy Maxi Mena who trained 45 deaf students from the National Institute of Speech and Hearing to present three of Gandhi’s favorite songs and bhajans in sign language. Silvy says “On his 150th birth anniversary this year, we wanted to do something special. The three bhajans we chose are Ekla Chalo Re by Rabindranath Tagore, Vaishnav Janto by Narsini Mehta, and Raghupati Raghav raja Ram by Lakshmanacharya. It was a challenge translating these, especially Ekla Chalo Re which is in Bengali. But the students were so talented; and they enjoyed working on this together”.
Moreover the students who performed these songs are aged between 17 and 21 years, and are pursuing Higher education Foundation Program and degree courses. She added “Executive director Samuel N Mathew has been very supportive”. Previously three years ago, she got the students at NISH to perform a classical dance using sign language as mudras.
