I, ME MYSELF...MR. N. ILANGO

The voice behind, "Kelvinator- the coolest one" and a host of other jingles, this 'Best Achiever' of Loyola College in the year '92-'93 has a near native excellence of spoken English. Mr.N. Ilango, who happens to be visually challenged from birth, is, as his resume says, a "Proficient Communicator in English". But what his resume does not say is his amazingly sharp wit (betrayed by his sudden guffaws); He cannot help but pass on his infectious enthusiasm to you. A lover of languages, especially English and Tamil, he seamlessly switches with such great ease from Shakespeare, to an obscure but beautiful poem of Bharathidasan! With flawless accents to match!

This chirpy talented singer, (who can sing just like S.P Balasubramaniam!) can be as thoughtful as he can be spirited; when he starts to share insights about his life, is when you realise that Ilango 'sees' life better than a lot of sighted people! Mr Sanath Kumar.T.S gives excerpts from an interview with this joie-de-vivre bundle-of-talent :


"Music and English are my two loves."

On Music..

"I find that there are troupes comprising exclusively of visually challenged persons. There are all-girl orchestras too. This is a disturbing trend emerging in light music orchestras and I strongly disapprove of such isolation. What should be the common point is Music.
Most of the time the audience reaction is, when the musician does well, it is God's compensatory mechanism - when He has deprived someone of a faculty, He compensates by giving some additional capacity - and when the musician does not perform well, the patronising attitude takes over. Either reaction is not a real response.
When such a troupe performs, the response is rather biased and there is no proper appreciation for the music that is performed. Not only is the quality of the music never assessed on its own merits, but it is also associated only with the disability of the person- and the musicians concerned (and the music) are the losers. In spite of a mediocre rendition, the applause and response in view of their handicap lulls the musicians into a sense of complacency and the urge to strive for perfection is lost, they become stagnant. Many visually challenged musicians, especially instrumentalists, who feel that they are not accepted in the mainstream drift towards each other and form exclusive troupes. They play on sympathy, not on talent.

Unlike, say, painting, music does not have anything to do with the sense of sight. In fact, most great singers, especially while rendering a difficult or a mellifluous portion of a musical composition tend to close their eyes while performing. And instrumentalists, too, very rarely need to keep looking at their instruments while they play. My contention is that all musicians should display professionalism- only then can they go from strength to strength. Some sponsors feel that by giving such orchestras opportunities to perform, they are doing them a favour. Some even feel that such troupes can be hired for a lesser budget!

When a regular orchestra plays, there is open and constructive criticism that leads to self-betterment. This is not present in visually challenged orchestras. I started mingling with regular orchestras, singing for them on a freelance basis (I now do about 6-10 shows a month). Of course, I did have problems initially, like mobility, gaining acceptance as a performer on stage, etc. But once they realised that I was indeed performing well and bringing credit to the troupe, the troupe managers realised that hiring me did not need the feeling of dispensing favours to a visually challenged person. It was all on a professional level with no concessions for extraneous considerations and I really started to enjoy such outings."

On doing jingles and voice-overs..

"As far as I know, I am the only visually challenged person doing voice-overs. I should thank Ms. Srikala Bharath, the dancer, who tried me out for her TV programme, which became a success; word spread and soon I landed advertising assignments and documentary assignments. For the latter, the voice-over material would run to several pages. Necessity being the Mother of Invention, I would pre-record the matter into a Walkman, ensure that I am familiar with what I will need to say, and during the recording, listen to this tape and speak out with the necessary modulations!

I've done more than half-a-dozen corporate documentaries including one for the ISRO when a satellite was launched a couple of years ago. People who are unaware of my modus operandi, think that I can be used only for smaller scripts and use me for advertisements, etc., where the voice-over lasts only for a few seconds."

On teaching..

"During 1997-98, as a P.G. Assistant at T.I. Higher Secondary School, Chennai, I taught General English to 12th Standard pupils, in addition to Spoken English for the 6th and 7th Graders and teachers. I got this break through Mr. Francis Jayachandran, the then Correspondent of this school who happened to attend one of my seminars. I was called for an Interview and Mr. Venkatakrishnan, the Principal, was very impressed. I took up this assignment with sheer enthusiasm but transit posed a big problem. I could not afford to shift my residence because of my voice-overs and music- most of my contacts and assignments were in the City. I was always accessible to my students, the only condition being: our entire conversation should be in English and English alone. I had established an excellent rapport with my students who genuinely liked to interact with me even beyond the purview of whatever I was teaching them; they liked to read out from books, newspapers and magazines just to try out and improve on their speaking skills. The Principal extended invaluable support to me and this helped me in my efforts to improve the language skills of the students and the faculty. The Principal even procured a tape recorder and other such aids, in effect converting my room into a mini-lab for English. Of course, there were some teachers who felt that by mingling with students as one and not maintaining my distance as a teacher, I was giving undue freedom.

At A.M.M. Matriculation School, also in Ambattur, Chennai, where I was deputed as well, the students liked me, my teaching and my approach. But as the classes were on different floors, I found it quite difficult to find my way. The students loved to help me out and, sometimes, in their over eagerness, there would be a free-for-all amongst them as to who should assist me!

I had to reluctantly give up these assignments because the strain of travelling such long distances twice daily had begun to take its toll. I felt the same constraints when I served in Guru Nanak College, Chennai."

On doing Workshops…

"Dr Sirish Choudhary, Humanities, I.I.T. Chennai, and Mr. Robert Bellerman who was with the British Council, Chennai, involved me in their workshops and I handled sessions on speaking skills and introductory pep talks as initiatives before the workshop got under way. I was able to establish rapport with the participants quickly and whatever I had to say was very well- received. The initial reaction was surprise and this swiftly changed into curiosity - 'What would he have to say?'. When your content and presentation impress them, they are enthralled and the session takes off well. So I started to branch out into HRD though I do not have any experience in corporate matters. At T.N.Paper Ltd in Karur, I spoke on self-confidence, shared my experiences and talked about the art of living. Originally I had been allotted only the introductory session, but the effect it had on the participants resulted in their insisting that I handled a couple of more sessions afterwards. These had to be bi-lingual, in Tamil and in English. It was a totally different experience and it was quite nice. I gave lectures at The Tamil Nadu Institute of Labour Studies on Motivation and TQM (Total Quality Management), subjects that I was not familiar with at all, but I put in a lot of research and it was challenging. Though I am basically a language person, I have handled sessions on Personality Development too.

I have understood that the participants see if you practise what you preach. In many cases, I found that participants are older than me and there is always the feeling that they know better than young upstarts. Yet another matter that I have sensed is that during my interaction with the participants prior to a session they expected someone older to conduct the session. The undertone is in the lines of 'what could this youngster know that we don't?'. Then they slowly begin to realise that what I have to say is practicable. The initial scepticism begins to wane. When I talk about the art of living, I always say that Life is such a beautiful thing, enjoy it. Don't just exist. When they observe me, they know that I am talking out of my own conviction. With the exception of the TQM and other heavy workshops, most of the topics happen to be on whatever are my personal interests. My credo? Do whatever you do with conviction and enjoy what you are doing."

While it is truly uplifting to see someone with such insight these days, it is so heart wrenching to see that although Ilango, whose future plans include starting a Spoken English Institute, is very talented, hard-working and intelligent, to this day he does not have a regular job, and is the bread-winner of his family…

Ilango can be contacted at : 43/1, 14th Lane, Indira Nagar, Chennai-600020.