Aravind R and Venkatesh Kannan respond to a question in sign language. Srivatsan Sankaran translates, a smile on his lips: “They are both thrilled to be part of something this big for the first time in their lives.” He adds after a pause: “Aravind says he is a little anxious about the whole thing.” The conversation, that happens over a Google Meet call, is about the South India T20 Cricket Championships for the Differently-abled set to take place from May 22 to 25 in Chennai. Photographers Srivatsan, Aravind, and Venkatesh, who are deaf and hard of hearing, are part of Madras Photo Bloggers (MPB), that has been roped in to cover the tournament by the Tamil Nadu Physically Challenged Cricket Association.
Srivatsan, who wears a serious expression throughout — the video call service has a sub-title feature that conveys my questions — appears happiest when he talks about his ambitions for photography. It took almost 10 years for the 33-year-old, who previously took up a software developer role in the IT sector after his Computer Science Engineering, to get here.
He sat through countless work meetings that were not sensitive to his needs; dealt with dozens of colleagues who did not take an effort to understand his disability; spent several years in a work environment that gave him anxiety and made him feel out of place. “I didn’t feel like I was home,” he recalls. He quit in 2014, and decided to pursue a career in travel photography.
