Hi! I’m new here. I thought of introducing myself and tell you a bit of my background.
Here it goes…
Around 30 years ago, when I was born, everything looked fine to my parents – I was a bright and healthy baby and so was a statement from the attending hospital doctor.
But during my neonatal months, when my utterances were just monosyllables and not perfect speech (sounds/words), my parents were concerned.
However, everybody around me from family, friends, to the pediatrician advised my parents that I was just as a case of a “late talker”.
Even an impedance audiometry at 21/2 years showed normal hearing, when my parents worried too much before the doctors.
But when I wouldn’t talk normally at 3 years, my parents were really alarmed, they consulted a pediatrician at Mass General Hospital in Boston who recommended a BERA test.
And then came the shock for my parents – they learnt that I was born with congenital binaural sensori-neural profound hearing loss – in other words I was just short of totally deaf.
My parents immediately got me a pair of analog BTEs (digital hearing aids weren’t available then) and my mother took me to a speech therapist to start ‘auditory-verbal lessons’.
My mom and I persevered – often struggled for months and months to perfect my speech and meanwhile I was mainstreamed into a regular private school from the beginning.
Later I went to an art college and specialized in computer graphics and graduated in BFA with honors.
After college I worked as a graphic designer in a publication house and later on as a graphic analyst in a multi-specialty law firm. I have also been a design consultant for some time and thus I gathered some professional experience in my field.
Currently I am working full-time as a freelance artist with occasional graphic design projects. I set up my own website where you can purchase prints or merchandise with artworks inspired by my own past and present personal experiences, travels and so on.
Yes, I’m a devotee. And looking to make friendships here and hopefully get a partner too. I was always attracted to disabled men - those who limps a bit or a lot, wearing leg braces and amputees esp. the AK or BK etc... And I'm open to other disabilities also.