Lend me your (R)ears

Going to the market ?

No, I am going to the market.

Oh, I thought you are going to the  market.

Well, one of your main faculty, one of the important input device is not working, that’s the message from the above conversation. To understand the agony of not being able to hear, put your fingers in your ears and block the sound that’s coming your way.

My spouse had a complaint about my hearing. She kept pestering me  to get it checked. And then I accompanied my daughter to hospital for a minor ear infection case for her, yes this time no excuse, you get yours also done.

I get my ears plugged and the test gets going. The doctor looks at the results and asks me who said you cannot hear, I said, my wife.

What made her say that. I told him I hear what she says, I do not listen to what she says! He had a good and the last laugh, for the charges he collected.

Music goes out of our life, when we lose our hearing.

I was talking to a guy from the ENT (ear, nose and throat) department and he revealed  the statistics of people losing the hearing power, around 8 to 10% of the population, that’s more than a crore, youngsters plenty, mainly due to the music and phones, with for your ears only devices.

A hearing aid for the ear is as good as specs for the eyes, however there is a lot of reluctance to use the same, before acceptance.

Hearing loss that occurs gradually due to aging is common.  For those older than 65, the number of people with some hearing loss is almost 1 in 2.

Aging and chronic exposure to loud noises like  bursting cracker, a blast are significant factors that contribute to hearing loss. Other factors, such as excessive earwax, can temporarily prevent your ears from conducting sounds as well as they should.

An aunt who had gone to doctor to check her ears, the doctor removes the wax blockage which she was not aware of, comes home and shouts at everybody for talking aloud,

The other day, I met someone from the steel plant, I asked him whether he is working in power plant, how do I know he wanted to know, I told him I have seen him. He was happy to be recognized. I had guessed, generally, people working in a noisy environment end up talking aloud and loses hearing capability to a degree.

My daughter had an interesting experience in the college, she spoke to her class mate standing alongside, wondered when she did not respond. Another friend told her that she cannot hear, how come she was talking to me all these years, she asked. For her to understand she has to be face to face , she lip reads. Sandhya was shocked and embarrassed, it took her two years to realise, whom she was talking to, often, was hard of hearing and then admiration for the way she was handling her challenge.

I took  admission to learn sign language, simply, for no big reason, classes were on Saturday and Sunday. It gave me an opportunity to meet few students, who were happily conversing with each other in sign language. Those born hearing impaired, are unable to talk.  One day they came to me and shared their examination marks, some of them scored 80-85%. They come across situations of non acceptability on the job front. The industry is missing out on good talents, we have to find a way to train them and get them on to the mainstream. Why not introduce sign languages, along with other languages, as a curriculum, in schools ? Can it be a solution to national language issue, when today, we cannot get all to agree on a common language ?

Talk to your doctor in case of low hearing is interfering with your daily life. Your hearing may have deteriorated if:

• You find that it’s harder to understand everything that’s said in conversation, especially when there’s background noise
• Sounds seem muffled
• You find yourself having to turn the volume high when you listen to music, the radio or television and others scream to lower it

 

 

How we hear sounds, simple.

Hearing occurs when sound waves reach the structures inside your ear, where the sound wave vibrations are converted into nerve signals that your brain recognizes as sound.

For a simple function, what a complicated design, you may be knowing about it, however, I came to know about it very recently, that’s why I am showing off

My ear consists of three major areas (yours must be same): outer ear, middle ear and inner ear. Sound waves pass through the outer ear and cause vibrations at the eardrum. The eardrum and three small bones of the middle ear amplify the vibrations as they travel to the inner ear. There, the vibrations pass through fluid in a snail-shaped structure in the inner ear (cochlea).

Attached to nerve cells in the cochlea are thousands of tiny hairs that help translate sound vibrations into electrical signals that are transmitted to your brain. The vibrations of different sounds affect these tiny hairs in different ways, causing the nerve cells to send different signals to your brain. That’s how you distinguish one sound from another.

Copied from Mayo clinic site.

Friend, Romans, country men, lend me your ears… that was how Mark Anthony addressed an agitated mob after Julius Ceaser was killed under the pompey’s statue, in Rome, reference William Shaksespere’s Julius ceaser.

Hear, listen, hello, clap clap and many others to draw some ones’ attention to hear , I have found lend me your ears as most impressive. Unlike lend me money, which you may not get back, ears are easy to lend since you can take it back whenever you want, you can switch off. It sounds like a request, not an order.

Antony’s speech  begins by justifying the actions of Brutus and the assassins, keeps calling them “honourable men”, “I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him”, Antony manages to get the mob see Caesar in a positive light and against the conspirators.

The crowd begin to riot and search for the assassins with the intention of killing them.

Antony then utters to himself: “Now let it work. Mischief, thou art afoot. Take thou what course thou wilt.”

The lesson here is, if you want to succeed in your communication make sure your listener’s ears are working well.

We had to mug this speech for elocution and when we forget, the master used to pull out a cane and use the parody ,lend me your Rears !

 

Reading further is optional

 

This picture of an ear, has a similarity to the profile a child in the womb. Accupressurists and Accupuncturists use the points on the ear for treatment of various body part issues.

Take it or leave it.

Some additional information,

Comparing loudness of common sounds

What kind of decibel levels are you exposed to during a typical day? To give you an idea, compare noises around you to these specific sounds and their corresponding decibel levels:

Sound levels of common noises
Decibels	Noise source
BASED ON THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON DEAFNESS AND OTHER COMMUNICATION DISORDERS, 2010, AND THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH, 2013
	Safe range
30	Whisper
60	Normal conversation
78	Washing machine
	Risk range
80 to 90	Heavy city traffic, power lawn mower
90	Motorcycle
100	Snowmobile, hand drill
110	Chain saw, rock concert
	Injury range
120	Ambulance siren
140 (pain threshold)	Jet engine at takeoff
165	12-guage shotgun blast
180	Rocket launch

Maximum sound-exposure durations

Below are the maximum noise levels on the job to which you may be exposed without hearing protection, and for how long.

Maximum job-noise exposure allowed by law
Sound level, decibels	Duration, daily
BASED ON OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY & HEALTH ADMINISTRATION, 2008
90	8 hours
92	6 hours
95	4 hours
97	3 hours
100	2 hours
102	1.5 hours
105	1 hour
110	30 minutes
115	15 minutes or less