The Sound of Silence (updated 14.09.2025) with "the dream"
This is a story in Simon's Kika planned book "The Songbirds they have all learnt to Sing" .
The songs they sing are "Proverbial".
Setting
Goa, "Claudia House". the ancestral house of the Kikas.
The four-day gathering of the Kika Clan
A number of events are planned. This is probably the last gathering that takes place every ten years, as the last of the Kikas do not have any children. Those that also above and have past away attend. This is one of the speeches made by Simon Kika.
The Master of Ceremonies Trevor announces the speech to be made by Simon , after the evening meal.
The two bands "The Penguins", and "The Bombay Sandpipers", have just played.
“Ladies and Gentlemen,
Please close your eyes. Imagine you are in Goa walking along the beach at 7 am in the morning bare foot. You hear the quiet lapping of water on the shore, the crabs scurrying on the sand as soon as danger approaches running to their holes. The feeling of being one with nature. Everything else is still, except for a gentle breeze blowing. This is what many would say is utopian. Are you with me so far? Time stays still…I cannot believe it.
This sound of silence is golden, just like the colour of the sand. Reminds me of my two favourite songs , ‘Sound of Silence’ by Simon & Garfunkel, and “Silence is Golden” by the Tremeloes.” As you walk along the wet sand, you leave your footprints behind. The sun is rising, and it shimmers on the water surface. A beautiful picture is etched on your brain. The problems of the world seem so very far away.”
Simon then adds,
“What I will do now is ask Brian, the MC to play these two records for you “Silence is Golden”, followed by “The Sound of Silence”.
They were, and still are my favourite two singles long time ago.
I will now take off my hearing aids, no noise, so peaceful, and he will indicate to me when the music has finished by raising his right arm.
In the meantime you can enjoy these two songs.
Brian please play the two songs one after the other, and indicate to me that the music has finished so that I can put my “EARS” back on!
No noise, so peaceful. Over to you Brian.”
Pause…. Records are playing….
Brian raises his right arm to indicate that the two songs have been played.
Simon then says,
”I will now put my hearing aids back on, and will continue with my speech
I have not been able to hear properly these two of my favourite songs for many y”ears”, …. because of my bad “ears”.
We all value silence, hearing our own heartbeat. To those in the cities like London or Paris, the incessant sound of traffic, blaring of horns, and also loud music from cars. This is normal.
People here are glad to be within their four walls in peace, and let the ‘Rat-race,’ continue outside.
We go on holiday to recharge our batteries and for peace and tranquillity. Have you considered other people who do not need to go away for this tranquillity as they are deaf?
Are these people lucky as they ‘Are always on Holiday!’
Peace and quiet, is the norm for us and we know no other world. When we talk, or try to, people run away.
Why? We cannot hear our own voice, so we cannot regulate how loud we speak.
Let me give you a couple of examples and ask you now to “PLAY ME Simon Kika,” and what would you do.
You would talk loudly, and people will think you are aggressive. When people reply to you, you ask them to repeat often more than once, which irritates them after some time. The only communication method open to me, is writing.
Then you can appreciate this severe disability.
Communication is of vital importance, the inability to do so is catastrophic. In my case my hearing disorder is quite severe, and without hearing aids, everything around me would be perfect, as you would say “Silence is Golden”. Even with hearing aids, hearing in a pub or restaurant where many people are speaking at the same time, and all you can hear is “The Tower of Babel”.
No music, telephone, or TV.
Is that not a ‘Perfect world?’ Writing is now the only option open to me.
I have spent a lot of time writing. Not only for a book, but to communicate with my friends via email. Unfortunately, these are longer than five lines, and when they land are put into spam by the receiver, as he has no time, and does not want his “Smart phone “ cluttered.
Can you imagine the isolation of a deaf person for example during the “Covid Pandemic”. The two and half years of this terrible plague totally isolated me from the outside world.
I need to wear glasses. Wearing a mask over my mouth as required, the bands for the mask behind my ears, my glasses which also are supported by my ears, and finally my two hearing aids also behind my ears. This construction is exceedingly difficult to keep on. My hearing aids, which are expensive. If they drop, If they do drop, 1 cannot hear any more. So my visits outside our four walls was limited to essential visits only.
This situation further isolated me , as I was reluctant to go out of the house. I lived with this fear for the two and half years of Covid. This isolation, from normal communication, resulted in my mental health being unbelievably bad.
The consequences… frustration, aggression, severe depression, inward looking.
Friends there were two other aspects that hit us with the event of Covid. My family live in London. My wife and I in Germany. We have two holiday flats which we let out and my wife manages as I am a pensioner. The income from the two holiday flats is our main source. Not only did it mean that for two and half years we had no income as we could not let out the flats, without any financial help from the state, and a substantial mortgage still to pay .
We received no help either from the state or family or friends. It was a disaster with only my pension to live on. My wife and I were alone. There was no where we could turn for help. We had to survive with our savings. It was light walking a tight-rope, without an end in sight. We were very isolated with the Covid restrictions, and throw in my hearing disability, it was for me a “living nightmare”.
I became even more isolated as now apart from talking to my wife, the telephone was not and option because of my handicap, so any communication with family and friends for me was zero. You cannot imagine my depression, would we survive financially, would we be struck down my the plague, or would I die of worry and loneliness.
There ladies and gentlemen, believe it or not worse to come. How much can a person take. My mental health was very bad, not a surprise, financially we were on “The Rocks”, but there was still more pain to come. We had two deaths in the family, in London both my mother’s sisters, during the pandemic, in the space of a year. My ninety-one year old aunt, picked up the virus in hospital and two days later she died. She was my Godmother and I loved her a lot. Can you believe that not only had she died, but I could not say goodbye. When you attend a funeral, it is highly emotional. The death, the Church ceremony, and then the burial. You have so much pain, from the time the person has died. In London, it is so bad that it takes often two weeks before the burial. When the coffin is placed in the grave , and covered is a highly emotional moment. However as a person we need this , as this is our “Goodbye”...we feel the pain in our heart, but we know that we were there for the final moment. This “Saying goodbye” is part of the healing process , and after some time, we cherish the memories. For both my aunts, this was not possible. I could not say “Good bye”. And this even a few years later is painful, haunts me, and I cannot find peace for myself.
Ladies and gentlemen , I will pause for a few minutes, as I am overcome with emotion. The worse has still to come.
Remember then I did not have a “Smart Phone”, for that matter even a mobile phone because of my hearing disability. My wife received a phone call in February saying that my brother had a heart attack and died in London. I was shocked when my wife told me what had happened as I was not able to communicate on the phone with my severe hearing disability. I was totally shocked. The news of his death was like a “thunderbolt” to me. He had stayed at my sister’s place on the Saturday, and had a meal with them. He was a staunch “Chelsea” supporter, and on the Sunday morning had left my Sister’s place and was on the way to get a train to the match that afternoon at Stamford Bridge, when a few meters from my Sister’s place on the pavement he had a severe heart attach and died. Luckily it happened a few meters from their front door.
I was totally overwhelmed with grief. I could only communicate with him by email, as I was in Germany, and he in London. And you can guess, his emails were only one-liners, so so communication was very poor, another “Benefit” of your “Smart Phone”. It was a good few months when I spoke to him on the telephone. It was February 2024, and the last time I say him was in February 2017, when he visited me in Hospital, when I also had heart problems and It looked “Curtains” for me. However I pulled through.
Can you now imagine how I felt, I was close to him as one could be with my severe handicap. We had not exchanged words on the phone or at all, for a long time, and now he was gone. I was so distraught. The “tears had dried”, then it hit me. I could not say my “Goodbye”
I will now tell you why..
When you are at a train station seeing a good friend off,
”You say Goodbye,” without thinking that you might never see that person again. In fact you do not think of it al all.
However when a loved one dies and is about to be “Buried” or “Cremated”, it hits you ….. “You will never again see this person”. It is quite a shock, “Back to reality”. When the “Coffin” is being lowered into the grave, or the “Coffin”, disappears from sight as it is a cremation, it is a massive shock. It is the last contact ever.
Ladies and Gentlemen, that was the case for me and my poor brother “Trevor”. With my disability, no mobile phone, because of my ear disorder, my balance was bad. I was terrified of visiting London as I was alone, paying on the buses, and tubes, is done using the “Smart phone”. That was why I could not say “Goodbye “to Trevor, and believe it or not, this till today two years later still pains..
Please excuse me for two minutes, until I compose myself………
I have also used "Chat" to communicate. However that has serious drawbacks as a real communication tool. It is very limited in its usefulness, as it is "Staccato", as you have another person on the other side, and its spontaneity means it is disjointed, and only sufficient for a short time. In my case it was the interactive communication tool with distant friends, so the messaging that comes across is often not the intended one, and then it is impossible to correct.
For simple communication it is is barely acceptable, but as a main stream tool, it is very bad and often creates misunderstanding, and is very difficult to iron out resulting problems. This was for me also a very poor method, especially if the person was a long way away. I lost many friends because of this, as they could not see my problem. When you talk to someone, apart from the words, the loudness and emotion come out clearly, and this adds to the message. This however is not so with written communication.
I am a person who loves to communicate, I was sent proverbially to “Coventry” because I cannot hear. There were many other problems related to this handicap. I lost a number of "Good friends", because of this, or they thought "Simon" does not communicate, so we are not interested. This added to my isolation. A further aspect of this was the many friends I previously had before the event of Covid, were themselves suffering from the effects of this terrible pandemic in more ways than one. The pandemic in some way or another hit practically every household. Family died, especially the older and most vulnerable, and with no warning at all. Nearly every family was somehow touched. Draconian laws were drawn up to try and stop this extremely contagious disease from spreading. There was no hope for a cure. The world had never seen such a plague.
People were unable to attend funerals of loved ones or friends. There appeared to be no end in sight for a very long time. The economic, social impact of this pandemic, was devastating for all.
This my friends was for me a "Hell" on earth. When would , things improve, if ever. and I was really down in the dumps. "Cannot hear, no friends".
The Dream (new added 13.09.25)
My dear friends, I kept this part for last, as I was not sure if I should tell it to you. However after a lot of thinking, to myself….. “Should I…. Should I not…” I decided to tell it.
Excuse me a second, as I need a bit of “Dutch Courage”, and will continue shortly…. I need a stiff “Brandy” with a lot of ice. Brian please can do get me one, the brandy bottle is next to you on your table”.
I will continue in a few minutes, as I must get this off my chest! I suggest you also get yourself a drink. A five minute break for us. I am sure you will understand why later.”
A short break for a few minutes,
….. Start of Pause ……
5 minutes
….. End of Pause…..
“Thanks Brian, I really needed it.
You will now understand why I had to think a lot before I shared this with you….. Here goes!
I went to bed last night very emotional feelings as to what I had planned to tell you today, and tossed and turned in my sleep, half awake and half asleep. After what seemed an age of time fell. Asleep.
Good… you may think…
No it was the start of my “Nightmare”.
Simon pauses for a few seconds, takes another sip from his glass, and then continues.
“I was absent-mindedly walking down the High Street, here, at the “Pedestrian Crossing, not paying attention to the fact that the pedestrian lights were “Red”, and I crossed the road.
Apparently I had not heard the loud horn of an approaching car, and was hit. A few minutes later I was dead.
I woke up with the shock a cold sweat poured over my face, and realised that it was a “Bad Dream”.
Do you know what came over me then! I was happy that it was only a dream. The reality of my poor mental condition before the accident flashed before my mind….
“I had wished that I was dead”. With the pain, depression, isolation that I had lived for so long. I am tired of life in the wilderness like a wandering soul how long can someone bare it!
I now hope that you can understand how low I had sunk, and lost the “Will to live”.
Tears keep pouring on his cheeks, and Brian gives him a tissue to wipe his face.
However over the last few days your response has been very positive, and I thank you all for giving me some of my “Mojo” back.
…………………...
There is a five minute break, as the guests think to what has just happened.
……………………..
Simon then continues,
“Sorry for the break, I had to get this off my chest as I had no idea I had sunk so low.”
He then continues…
Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you for your “silence” and ears for hearing my speech. I hope you enjoyed my brief “Music interlude.” I am very sorry that it became highly emotional at the end.”
References
Teaching the deaf to survive in a silent war zone: How Gaza is even more dangerous when you can’t hear Israel’s missiles coming
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/gaza-israel-war-deaf-hearing-b2818775.html
https://www.verywellhealth.com/deaf-history-and-heritage-1048377
The Official Website of the Deaf Grassroots Movement (DGM)
https://dgm2018.wixsite.com/tdgm/about-us-1
What is to know about deafness and hearing loss?
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/249285#types
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