Children of lesser god !

‘Sanath, tell me 5 car names’ pat came the reply in a low voice, ‘Maruti… Honda… Indigo…’ ‘Maruti, Honda, Indigo… say it loudly Sanath, I can’t hear, u have 2 more to go’, the boy tried to answer again ‘Maruti, Honda, Indigo…’ I was thinking what he said, and then the teacher replied ‘will u not answer if someone is looking at you Sanath?’

This was the conversation going on between a teacher & her student. To be precise, this was indeed a conversation between a teacher & a 10 year old student, Sanath. You might be wondering why such a simple question was asked to a 10 year old. In fact boys of this age can answer a lot more difficult ones than this one. If you are thinking right, yes, Sanath is not a normal kid. I witnessed this above conversation at ‘Apoorva center for AUTISM’. Sanath is one among the 22 children who come here every day for special kind of schooling. This is the school meant only for citizens with Autism.

A teacher with students

I and my friend, Deepa, were interested to give some sort of support to the less talked society, where things were pretty different from normalcy. We wanted to create awareness among the people in certain areas, out of which Autism was one of the common point we agreed upon. We being like-minded thought of bringing fun and joy to “Differently able Children” who are autistic by birth. We would like to invite more friends to be volunteers in this cause. With this intention in mind, as a baby step we happened to be at the “Apoorva centre for Autism” on Saturday (4^th Feb 2010).

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Some of the beautiful drawings & paintings done by these kids.

Autism is a neural disorder in kids. It causes them to experience this world entirely different from the way most other kids normally do. They cannot express themselves to others thru words. They cannot eat, they cannot walk properly, they cannot play, they cannot feel, and they cannot. They just cannot.

‘My son is 18 years old. He is here for 15 years now’ Lakshmi madam, who is the caretaker of this noble institution, told this to us. She gave up her banking job to look after her son. He was 3 years when they noticed his disorder. We felt her pain looking at her moist eyes as she narrated her story. Her elder son works for a reputed firm in US after having done MBA.

We came across lot of other kids who had different behaviors. Some were happy on seeing strange people walking up to them & trying to be friendly with them. Some resisted, some shied away, and some not even tried to have an eye contact as in case of Sanath.

We saw a boy crying as we walked through the class rooms. Curious to know what might be the reason behind his cry, we asked his teacher. ‘Today is his mathematics class; he doesn’t like numbers’ was the answer we got. We saw him crying almost all the time we were there.

Another boy had some strange marks all over his Cheeks, hands, legs & even his head. He used to hurt himself every two to three seconds. He will bite his fingers; punch his own face, his head with his own hands.

These kids mostly prefer to be alone, sometimes they don’t respond no matter how much loud you talk & sometimes they get afraid of even a little noise. They don’t have a real fear of dangers. Sometimes they show their extreme distress for simple or no apparent reason. They find it extremely vulnerable to interact with other people or even with kids too. They never like to see any sort of change in day to day routine.

Autism doesn’t have any particular symptoms related to health, as per doctors. Kids’ behavior is the only way to figure out the disorder. Usually AUTISM in kids can be detected when they are around 18 months old. Worst part is that there is no treatment for this disorder. Early detection, Doctors’, therapists & the special teaching alone can bring any difference to these citizens.

I & Deepa were amazed on looking at the dedicated teachers of Apoorva center for AUTISM. Let me tell you, it is tougher than teaching the normal kids. They have to deal with these kids with lot of patience. No words to explain their noble efforts. Interesting part is most of the teachers were parents of Autistic children. May be, it may have helped them to understand better.

Be a part of this cause by being present at the Apoorva center of Autism on their annual day celebrations this Feb 14^th 2010 & experience a different feel which leaves a lasting impression on you, as it did for us. :-)

For more details regarding Autism and the Apoorva center for Autism, please do visit the following websites.

http://ezinearticles.com/?Autism---Meaning,-Causes-and-the-Way-Out&id=2345147

http://www.autistica.org.uk

http://www.saiautismcenter.org/current/index.htm

Apoorva center for Autism

C/o Lions club of Sarakki

J.P Nagar. 2^nd Phase, Bangalore

080- 57710445 / 92431 95154

Wonder Kid !!!

December 25th 2007, Christmas eve, around thirty minutes past seven in the evening, when my elder sis delivered a baby boy. It was the most happy moment for my entire family, who were waiting very eagerly for this spectacular moment. Though this happy moment was very soon presided with life threatening complications for the mother. It was Almighty's blessing & elders prayers which saved her life.


The spectacular moments were back again. It was a festive mood. Cheers filled the mood of the rather pensive hospital wards. Whatever might be the grief of people stayin around, everyone joined the brief celebs. It was the birth of my little nephew, Wonder kid, Shahid. Its been one month, he turned 2 years.

This kid is filled with life all over, usually all kids are. I was not kinda attached with kids, it usually lasted for not more than a hour or two, i could spend time with them. This is not the case with Shahid, i can spend hours, days, months together..without even a single moment of boredom. May be its because of havin seen him from d moment he was born & d pain his mother had when he came into this life.

"tum dono ek doosre ka khilona ho" (u both r each other's toy) my sis tells smilingly seein me n shahid playin with each other whole day. He jumps on me as soon as i enter home from office. We used to play till we exhaust our energies. I should admit, it is indeed a very tuf task to make kids eat their meal once they turn a year or so... oh god, he made me n my sis run all over d house to make him eat. I felt like winning a hard fought battle to have made him eat his meal (even though a small bowl).

He will cal me mama, once or twice, if i don't hear he will start shouting my name, mashuth, as he used to pronounce my name... i just loved it. Sometimes i pretend as though i didn't hear him just to listen his cute voice callin me wit name. So cute n lovely. i miss all these days as he is stayin with his parents. Miss u boy.

Missing Pages !!!

Krish had managed to convince his girl friend’s parents to take them on a date, on a beautiful beach side hotel in Chennai. He had prepared himself well to propose, not just the girl, but her entire family. Ananya, Krish’s love, was already very much impressed with him.

This was a read from a novel that put me in thoughts. 80% of the read was complete. As far as I remember, this is the first book which had my concentration glued on to it like no other book before. I had cruised through the major portion in as less as four days, squeezing through my hectic schedules (trying to portray as though am a busy person; though not), I usually end up having no time for these kind of stuffs.

Author of this book had, in fact, aroused my lost habit of reading. I was eagerly waiting to reach the end of this story as it was based on a love marriage, in fact on a typical Indian love marriage to be precise.

I was reading this portion (mentioned at the beginning), at around midnight while lying on my bed. I was eager to know the reaction of Ananya’s parents’ towards the proposal. Krish, the main character of this book, after doing all the hard work to impress his would-be In-laws, had the perfect arrangements for his D-day planned. After finishing dinner, it was during the time of desserts, he starts to put forth his formal proposal.

After reading the first two sentences of his most important talk of life, suddenly I felt a sort of discontinuation. Let me tell you, it was the crunch of a situation. As I looked thru the page numbers, had a shock, oh god, after page number 182 I had jumped to page 189 instead of 183. It was a printer’s error, which drove me crazy at midnight. All my interest had suddenly collapsed, taking form of anger mixed with frustration. I had all sorts of swearing running thru my mind. I had spent lotta time & gone thru some pain (I mean neck pain) reading this. Whenever I found time, I had this book in my hand.

Four days went off without continuing my read thru the remaining part since I had to take a new copy. Tried downloading, tried renting it out from a nearby library (which said “rented out”). Last week, my dad had an appointment with his infamous homeopathy doctor, which prompted him to wait for nearly an hour at his clinic. I had accompanied him. Instead of sitting there inhaling the smell of the medicines, I went out for a lonely ride thru the streets of Jayanagar (Bangalore).

A crazy idea hopped thru my mind as I was passing thru a popular book house. I rushed in to the book house, hoping to find a copy of my unfinished novel. Closing time 8:15 PM sir, neevu naale banni (you come tomorrow), a dull faced watchman who was tired, standing all day at the entrance told me. Disappointment still continued for me. Without showing my frustration on the book store or on the equally frustrated watchman, I started my ride again. While waiting for the traffic signal to turn green near “cool joint” (popular hangout in the area), my eager eyes noticed another book shop on the left hand side. I will try my luck again I mused.

Thankfully, the next shop was not as crowded as I had expected. Again the crazy idea kept crawling in my mind. I grabbed a copy of this lovely book, strolled thru the vacant store filled with books everywhere. I was the only customer at that moment since it was around thirty minutes past eight in the night. The crazy idea, which was lying in mind so far, began to take shape in the form of a reality. Yes, I started reading that book in the book shop itself. The craziest thing I was ever doing. I kept on strolling thru the huge racks of books, to avoid the staff’s eye on me. I had held two or three books in my hand to give an impression that am looking to buy some, though I was not in any mood to buy any. I was very fascinated and at the same time I kept laughing at myself on this stupid act of mine.

Krish had won his battle, half way though, in this story. It was nine thirty when I finished reading those 6 pages which were missing in my book. I was so happy to continue my read thru the most interesting part of this novel. I remembered my childhood when I used to do all kinds of pranks. I had literally no excuse if the shopkeeper had caught me doing this. A sigh of relief went thru as I kept the books back on the shelves. I came out of the book store politely telling (lying, rather) them that I will visit them again.

I was fully determined to complete the remaining part of my read as early I would, since this story had initiated lot of curiosity to know what the climax is about. As I started to read further, to my astonishment, the missing pages were surfacing back, but at a misarranged order. It was around 2 AM when I completed my marathon read, satisfied for mainly two reasons, one having finished the book and secondly because the story ended happily.

“2 states” by Chethan Bhagat was the book for which I had taken so much of trouble :-) to complete. I hope he will read this excitement some day. Bye for now.
By the way, if you haven’t read “2 states” yet, please do.

Thë CreätiÖn – Ôf mÿ jõurñeÿ

“Forget your fate, think your destiny”, were the words flashed thru my mind when I reached the end of an light blue colored inland letter, addressing to my elder bro, who had moved to other city for the better. Yes, he had travelled across to Mysore from Chitradurga to pursue his education further.

It was the first time I ever wrote a letter to anyone. I was in class VIII. I wrote those words as a bottom line, the phrase which I copied from my brother’s letter to me. Let me tell you that I was replying to him, not the first to write though.

My journey of writing started thru Inland letters. In fact the first one I had borrowed from my elder sister. It continued for a couple of years, to friends this time, as I also moved to Mysore after finishing my 10th grade.

“Quick brown fox jumps over the lazy brown dog”, were the words pasted on to a clean piece of paper in my brother’s hostel room. It took me lotta time to understand what it meant or what it signified though. Something stopped me from asking my bro about this. I was rather more interested in doing something like that. It was like igniting the passion I had in me for creating a collage kind of a thing. I immediately started to collect phrases, proverbs from news papers & magazines to paste them on to a white paper. I still have my first collection with me. I hope to put a picture of that soon. Finally I came to know that all the English alphabets are used in that sentence. I remember reading it in an article on “kids world” from The Hindu. And I had heard my brother telling about it to one of his friends too.

Even though hailing from a small town, my father & my uncles are very good in writing. I do feel as if am carrying those skills in my genes, do you agree...? I did participate in writing essay’s when I was in school. Even I did participate in a collage competition in my previous company, BIL, on Global warming effects. Unfortunately my work was not considered to be applauded :( .

Being an active sports person, I got an opportunity to write an article on the recently concluded sports meet in my current company. I received incredible feedback on my articles, which inspired me to start writing this blog, second one in my journey. Thanks to the well directed guidance & motivation from my friends (A & D respectively – names confidential). Would like to take this wonderful journey of writing to a long distance. I hope i can live up to the expectaions of my fellow folks, who are bearing the pains to read this.

Happy reading… Hope to come back soon with lots more interesting things (hope it catches your interest). Pictures on this post… Coming soon…

Dêstïnäitións !! less travelled !!!

Rains, rains & more rains...floods everywhere, crops washed away, villages went missing without a trace. This was the situation in the two south Indian states, karnataka & Andhra pradesh, around a month back. Millions of people displaced, crops worth several crores lost in disgrace. It was one of the worst calamities to hit mainly these two states.

This was a kind of opportunity to Philanthropic people, to show up their humanitarian gestures. Similar kind of an idea was flashed to my colleague, which was executed. Let me try to narrate our emotions from this journey, emotions of our Philanthropic journey to the never land, a journey which never ends, a kind of journey you would remember for the rest of your life.

It was around midnight on that Wednesday night when we were done with packing all the relief material on to our transporter (tempo traveler). We had 250 new blankets, which was the major part of the luggage. There were lot of clothes, utensils & food grains collected through the employee donations. We left the city at midnight in between some traffic snarls.

Transporter

We reached our destination, Bellary (North east Karnataka) which is around 300 Kms from Bangalore, at around 7:30 AM. Thanks to the arrangements made by the FPA (a NGO along with which we were carrying out the relief work) in their hospital at Bellary.

Finally, along with the FPA director & volunteers, we started off to a flood affected village, Suggenahalli shaarada nagara, around 30 kms on the Hospet - Bellary highway. Bad roads did convey us the sad story of how the rains have affected the life of farmers here. Yes, the major occupation of people around this area is agriculture with Paddy being the major crop.

Lush green fields

After the hard journey of 1 hour, we reached a river bridge, which was no longer serving the purpose of being a bridge. It was washed off completely to an unrecognizable state. We had to walk across the stream to reach the village, where in, around 150 needy families were looking up to the relief material we had carried. Their grim faces did narrate the agony brought in by the devastating rains. Continuous rains & a breach in the nearby Darojee lake reservoir caused havoc around the surrounding areas. Flooding waters washed away the entire crop on its worst journey ever.

Ill fated bridge

We had lot more sad stories to hear, had lot more agonies to see. Our team had a shocker when we came across a house, which used to be prosperous before the floods. Heavy winds accompanied by the gushing waters had brought the roof down, taking away the life of an infant, leaving its mother in grief for the rest of her life.

Best part we noticed in this poor village was their unity at times of distress. They were organized in using the relief material, which they least got. They stored all the material at one place & used it wisely among themselves without creating any hassles unlike some other villages.

After a brief talk to the villagers we were off to another affected village on the banks of Lake Darojee. One thing common was the bridges, which connect these villages to the major cities, were completely damaged beyond repair. “That moment was like a nightmare. Not just the waters, we even witnessed snakes coming along” said an elderly person from the village. Many had lost the hard earned crops stored in the front yards of their homes. Nature’s fury was at its worst. People had pleasant smiles in their eyes, even though what we had to give them was nothing compared to what they had lost. It was quite a better lesson we learnt on how to deal with life at times of distress.

We did visit the Darojee lake reservoir, where all the damage had begun. Construction had already begun to contain the water from flowing further. Main wall of the reservoir, which was constructed around 4 centuries ago, failed to contain the water which was filled to the maximum capacity. Lot of bridges were washed away in the flooding waters making it difficult , I would say near to impossible rather, for the relief workers & material to be transported to the affected villages. At one point, a truck loaded with construction material for make shift homes, had collapsed on a narrow bridge blocking the way for almost a day. God forbid anything like this from happening to anyone again.

The breach

Damage control in progress

We were so much involved with this activity that it was almost half past four when we even thought of having lunch. Believe me it was a satisfying day so far. We drove back to our base camp. It was around 7 PM when we went to buy the utensils, which were to be distributed to the suggenahalli villagers, the next day.

By the way, i am Mak (maksood, but better called as Mak). This is my first blog. Hope to be active blogger from now on. See you. :)