By Suhani Ramchandra
Vidisha Baliyan isn’t your typical 22-year-old. She is the 2019 Miss Deaf World Winner, an international competitor at the 2017 Summer Deaflympics, and a disability activist. Originally from India, she was diagnosed with partial hearing impairment at birth and faced a troubling childhood because communication was hard. Her impairment made her a slow learner and as she distanced herself away from school, she neared the tennis court and soon entered the pageant world.
Last year I had the chance to speak with her in a short interview, so let's get right in!
Question 1: Who is Vidisha Baliyan, in your own words and what is she the most passionate about?
Vidisha Baliyan is a young achiever. She is Miss Deaf World 2019: the first Indian to win this title, a tennis player who represented India in the 2017 Deaflympics, is not at all apologetic about being DEAF. Instead, she is proud about it since she is away from most of the crap of this world.
She is focused towards achieving new heights. She has done very well in her life. Her achievements include 2 silver medals in national games and representing India in the Deaflympics. Despite suffering an injury there, she did very well there and got 5th position with a special certificate. Suffering a severe back injury made her give up the game, but it didn't let her give up her dream to be an achiever. She took up the new challenge of participating in the Miss Deaf India contest. She changed her body from a muscular, strong physique to a desired delicate beauty, and did all required preparation. She won there fair & square and qualified for Miss Deaf World 2019. Following that she started preparing even more harder for this global challenge and won the title to become the first Indian woman to win the Miss Deaf World title.
Vidisha is not at all apologetic about being disabled. She is proud of it. She is focused and treats it as an instrument that keeps her determined to achieve big.
Question 2: That moment when you won the Miss Deaf World 2019 crown, how do you define that? What did it symbolize to you?
The moment was really an emotional one, I went into tears. Despite of back to back performances there, I did well in all the talent rounds, I left it on mighty God. I noticed that the audience and jury liked my performance very much but I still thought I would be Miss Deaf Asia. When there was an announcement about Miss Deaf Asia who was …. I thought my chance was gone. When It was announced that Badge No. 3 Miss Deaf India was Miss World, I missed it and my fellow contestant had to tell me that it was me!. That was overwhelming and it brought me into tears.
Yes, I did my preparation well and implemented all things that I learned during the 3 months of regress training. I worked very hard day and night, I used to visualize winning the Pageant, and wrote positive affirmations. I sacrificed whatever it needed me to like giving up food that I liked the most such as ice cream and biscuits. All these sacrifices and hard work really paid off and it made me realize that if someone works hard with determination, he or she would be able to achieve even the impossible. Winning the title made me feel that I made my country proud by being the first Indian woman to win this title.
Question 3: Define “power” as you see it. What was that “aha” moment when you realized you were truly powerful?
My belief in my hard work is the ‘Power’ that drives me and made me achieve what I could achieve till date. I represented India twice – in tennis and in the Deaf World contest and brought glory by winning the Miss Deaf World crown to India. My aha moment was when I won the Miss Deaf World title. I somewhere made my mind that as a talented contestant I would win Miss Deaf Asia but somewhere I had trust in my hard work and a consistent performance all throughout the event. It made me feel that I was powerful and that God was with me.
Question 4: As an unapologetic woman, what advice, in any form, would you give to young women to help them unleash their power within?
I would like to say to all women to come out of all your apprehensions and move forward to achieve whatever things in life you want to achieve. Any hurdle should not stop you in any form. There would be problems one way or another, like in my hearing impairment – it had
made me become a slow learner, my early age in which the maximum learning happens went without listening to sound but in spite of that I didn’t give up and remained committed to whatever opportunity came my way, be it basketball, tennis, beauty pageants. So ladies, gear up to unleash your potential…forget about anything and everything, be focused…do not think about what you don’t have rather focus on what you have and can do.
I have come a long way and I am determined to go further, achieve more with my commitment to myself. I feel bad about the times when I kept thinking that as I am hard of hearing, I cannot do this or that. I had one commitment to myself that I would not sit idle and would do whatever God brought my way. I focus on my commitment to improve each day, each single hour, minute, and second.
Question 5: How do you describe the role of tennis in helping you reach your potential?
The role of tennis has been very instrumental. Playing games has been a stress reliever and a support system in my life. Tennis came to my life when I found that I was unfit for a group game as my hearing disability was coming in the way of my coordination and was pushing me towards rejection.
Tennis has helped me run away from any type of excuses. Even after this being an individual game I had other challenges. Most of the time, I was not able to get what coaches wanted to communicate. I was trying my best to understand what they were saying but it was not a success and I was leaving them frustrated. Sometimes I was shy telling them my problems so some knew about it and some didn’t making it quite challenging. To overcome this problem I worked very hard on my fitness so that coaches understood that I was quite committed to give my best. They noticed me tirelessly playing for hours and hours. I made myself gain some respect and sensitization towards my hearing problem. There I found that this hearing issue is helpful to me to remain away from some unwanted things like hooting and when people want to bog me down.
Tennis has taught me to stay focused and to do whatever you can do in that moment. Since tennis was a very technical game, I was not able to grasp many things sometimes because of not being able to get what the coach wanted to say. Other times it was because of shame about what fellow players would say if I asked to repeat. Some coaches were not sensitive enough and were yelling at me. Tennis taught me everything…the hard work, patience, consistency, ignoring the unwanted, how to get ready for opportunities the next day even after a bad day which were countless in my life.
Question 5: Where do you see yourself heading next?
I have full faith in God. God paves the way for me. But what I know for sure is that I am honest in putting efforts to any opportunity that comes my way. I am ready to explore all possible opportunities and dedicate myself to them.
The example of this is last year when doctors suggested to take full rest and remain away from tennis or any other rigorous activity. I was completely shattered as if life had been taken away from me. I kept praying to God and God paved the way for me - I came to know about the Miss Deaf India and Miss Deaf World contest. Following that, I dedicated myself to that in my thoughts and actions. I did my preparation for both contests with full honesty and dedication. This made the dream of my life come true by making my country proud.
Heading next, I want to inspire people who somewhere feel that they are less than anybody. Yes, I would like to work for deaf people in all my possible capacity. I want to open a school for them but this needs funding and many other resources. So, till then I want to go and meet people, inspire them by telling my story, the hurdles I faced, the emotional ups and downs I have gone through. I would request for you all to join hands with me to build an ecosystem where no one feels underprivileged and short of any capability and they are extended help of any kind. We can do something for people with different abilities
We hope you enjoyed this interview with Vidisha Baliyan and look forward to highlighting more empowering women
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