KATHMANDU, April 2: He cannot hear. Nor can he speak. But if there is a gadget that is dearest to Badri Prasad Khanal, it´s a cell phone.
"So what if we cannot hear, we can communicate on Skype through gestures," says 36-year-old Khanal, who has been deaf since birth and works at a Bakery Cafe outlet at Gwarko, Lalitpur.
Khanal, who bought a smart cell phone with 3-G technology for Rs 10,000 just last year, says his joy knows no bounds when he gets to talk to his friends on Skype through gestures.
"Earlier, we used to communicate by sending SMSes," says he. "Since last year, we have been relying on Skype for communicating." He says Skype has made his otherwise monotonous life very exciting. "I no longer need to stay idle. I can now talk to my friends whenever I feel like it."
Dhruba Neupane, 25, who also suffers from hearing impairment, says that Skype has made life a lot easier. "When there was no Skype, we could communicate by writing on our note books," he said. "But communicating through Skype is far more interesting and easier."
"While using Skype, we don´t look into the faces of friends we are conversing with," says Neupane, also a Bakery Cafe worker. "We just look at their hands. For us, it is important to identify different hand gestures."
Laxmi Gurung, a deaf girl who works at Bakery Cafe at Chuchepati, Kathmandu, had been using Skype for communicating via computer until recently. Since she bought a smart phone, she has been using her mobile phone for communicating on Skype.
Like Laxmi, most deaf people hold the mobile set with one hand and use the other hand to make different gestures. "Using Skype for communicating is expensive," she says. "But we still prefer it, as it is easy and interesting."
According to Kuber Neupane, treasurer of an association of the deaf, an estimated 15,000 people suffer from hearing impairment in Nepal, and most of them have access to mobile phones. "Some of them have started to use video chat for communicating," he says.
"Video chat is very exciting," says Neupane. "But it is not affordable for all. If the government provides subsidy, Skype or some other form of video chat can change the lives of thousands of deaf in Nepal."
