Dr. Raj Desai goes back to India  12/30/2002 - 1/20/2003

    Dr. Raj Desai has been granted Humanitarian Award of the Carl Miller Discovery Grant of the Rotary International Foundation. Dr. Desai took a trip to India to make a documentary on the prevention of deafness in India under the title, Silent Village.

Raj left Los Angeles soon after spending Xmas holidays with his family and arrived in Mumbai on December 30, 2002. In the next four days he gave four lectures to the Rotary Clubs in Mumbai on the subject Project Deaf India. He then arrived in Bangalore and met with his friend, Ron Carman, of Los Angeles, who helped him make the documentary. The best camera crew was selected and all went to Hubli by train. The seven hours ride on the train was successfully utilized in planning the documentary.

We all arrived in Hubli station with the most generous welcome by the Rotarians of Midtown Hubli. The welcome was ceremonial, Indian style with garlands and arthi. After resting a few hours in the hotel, we met with the Rotarians and planned the next day to visit the villages of the deaf. The Rotarians had made excellent arrangements with the village chief, and they also arranged for the press and local TV crew to cover the event. The next few days were spent capturing the history of the discovery of these villages of the deaf on film.

Coincidentally, the mobile van with a soundproof room, donated by the Rochester Institute of Speech and Hearing, arrived while we were filming the above event. This mobile van had been shipped from New York to Mumbai by the generosity of the Indo-U.S. agreement of the Direct Relief Foundation - Santa Barbara. This van will be of great use to go from village to village of the Hubli area to detect early deafness among the villagers.

After finishing the shoot, we began editing in Bangalore. Editing was completed on January 20, 2003. We learned about the International Film Festival in Trivandrum, India during our stay in Bangalore. We took this opportunity to submit our documentary for competition.

The documentary has now been produced in several languages: English, Hindi, Tamil, and Kannada. It will be available in CDs and VHS tapes. The goal of this documentary is to educate the public of India as to how to decrease the high incidence of deafness. The four main causes of deafness in India have been identified by our previous visit to the villages near Hubli, and these causes are:
1) Chronic ear infection due to religious habit of putting coconut oil and Tulsi-leaf juice in the ears. This is a custom in the villages surrounding Hubli. 2) Contaminated water supply. 3) Marriages between close relations. 4) Malnutrition, hygiene, and sanitation.

It was a great satisfaction to see the difference that the Rotary has made in the lives of 500 villagers by supplying three pure-water wells, an elementary school, and a monthly health clinic. Hearing aids were given to those who needed them.  During our visit to the villages a happy ceremonial function was held to celebrate the change of life the villagers experienced during the last year.

Our documentary, Silent Village, captures all of the above scenes, and it will be available in the next few weeks for distribution. Any financial donation will be warmly accepted. All donations are tax deductible: Tax OD# 95-348-9928. Checks to be made out to: Rotary Club of Newport-Balboa Foundation.