 Didn't understand anything, did you? That's 63 million deaf people in India who go through this year after year, day after day, trying to make sense of a world they cannot hear. Huge lack of awareness and social stigma of having a child that is differently abled. Parents run from pillar to post trying to understand how to bring up their child. And they are told, even though your child can't hear, there's nothing wrong with his voice box. There's nothing wrong with his vocal cords. And he can be eventually taught how to speak. And there starts the journey of years being spent trying to teach this little child how to articulate words that he cannot hear. Even within the family, this little child wants to communicate with his parents. He wants to be part of the conversations in the family, but he can't. And he doesn't understand why nobody is listening to him. So he feels isolated and misses out on a crucial skill that is required when we go up. He goes to school thinking, okay, hopefully things will be different. And he finds the teachers opening their mouths and closing and writing these strange things on the board. Without understanding, because he can't hear, he copies it all down. Regurgitates it in the exam time. And by rote and a few grace marks, he finishes school class 10. What are his chances of employment? Here is this child who really doesn't have any real education, visual words, vocabulary of 30 to 40 words. He's emotionally insecure. He's probably angry with the whole world also, which as he feels has systematically disabled him. Where does he work? Menial labor, unskilled jobs, often in very abusive conditions. That's where my bird journey starts in 2004. I don't have, as Kelly said, I don't have any family who are deaf. Just a strange pull and no rational thought. I jumped into this world and learned sign language. That time it was a challenge. Nobody seemed to know. What is it that you want to learn, Ruma? Is that a language? Anyway, learning sign language opened up my life to this community, which is outwardly silent, but is brimming with the passion and curiosity as visual learners. And I heard their stories of what they wanted to do. And a year later in 2005, with the meager savings of about $5,000 of a matured insurance policy, I started the center in a small two-bedroom flat with just six students and me teaching them English in sign language. The challenges, the need of the hour at that point was, how do I get these kids who are just high school pass into real jobs, into the companies? Jobs of dignity, jobs that can prove that deaf are not dumb. So the challenges were huge. The deaf were years sitting like this, years of ennui and darkness. They needed to believe in themselves. The parents needed to be convinced that this child is not deaf and dumb and he's capable of standing on his own two feet. But most importantly, would the employer employ somebody who couldn't speak, couldn't hear and very much couldn't read or write either? I sat together with some of my friends from the industry and I shared with them my story about what it meant to be deaf. And I understood there were clear areas in companies where deaf people could work as a great value add. And with meager resources, we created the first ever vocational training curriculum for deaf people in the country. Finding trainers was a problem. So I trained my deaf kids, my students to become teachers for the deaf and a job they took on with great responsibility and pride. Still the employer was sceptic. Education, qualification, 10th pass? No, no, no, Ruma, we cannot employ him. That was a big problem. And even if we did employ him, how are we going to communicate with him? He can't read, right? Can't hear, speak. I just told him, please can we take it just one step at a time? You know, can we focus on what he can do? He's a great visual person. He can work. And if it works, wonderful. If it doesn't, we will at least know. Here I would like to share a story about Vishu Kapoor. He came to us in 2009 with no language at all. He didn't even know sign language. All he processed in his brain was through his eyes. His mother was in despair and she says, Ruma, can I please keep him in your centre for two hours? It's really difficult for me to manage with him 24 hours a day. So I said, yeah, okay, like a crash service. It took us very painstaking one and a half years for us to give Vishu a language. And as he started communicated and he got a sense of self and understood that there was, I mean, he couldn't hear, but heck, he could do so many other things. He figured out that he liked to work on the computers. We encouraged him, motivated him and put him through our IT programs. He cleared all the tests, you know, much to my nervousness. And opening came one day in the back end of a very well-known IT company. And just for the exposure and the experience I'd set, let Vishu also go for this job interview. Vishu went there and cleared all the technical tests. Even then I said, I just hope he will be able to stick on for six months at least. It's been a year and a half now. Vishu is still there and he's not only just, oh, this poor guy working in this hearing environment. He is winning laurels as best employee of the month, not once, but two times. And I want to share with you that today, it takes us about a year and a half to teach a deaf person to get ready to get into this real world that we know about. And a short time of six years, today 500 of my wonderful young students are working in some of the top organizations in the industry, in graphic design profiles, in the back end of IT organizations, in hospitality, in barrier-breaking employment like in the security, and in banks, and also in retail outlets and doing direct customer service, directly facing people like you and me in KFC and coffee outlets. I just leave you with a small little thought that, yes, change is possible. And it just starts with just one little change in our perspective. Thank you so much. And this is applause. It's an international sign for applause. Thank you so much.