Friday, November 03, 2006

The naming....

As Rajesh said it, we humans are so much into categorizing. It makes life so very simple and easy for us to understand. But then all this naming and categorizing takes away from the simple joys of life...
Just as it has done in case of Sidharth. The doctor who diagnosed him for autism did not want to label him and at that time I did not realise the importance of this. But now over the years as I see my six year old son being viewed differently and now I have begun to understand what Dr Vinay Malhotra actually meant four years back.
Looking at Sid, he is just as normal as any child and yet as abnormal as any other child. It is just the way we want to see him. Yes by calling him autistic we have taken away from him his right to a normal life. It is my endeavour to restore this right to him, this is the least I could do for him being his mother.
Just today morning I met Viren. Viren is Sid's new class mate and he lives very close to our place. Viren has some brain complication, a too long scientific name which I could not understand as his mother rattled it out. All I could piece together was that there was lack of oxygen in some part of Viren's brain. Today morning as he came to the bus stop, Viren greeted me. A smile lit up his face and he made my day.
Coming back to Viren's so called abnormality how many of us wear spectacles for our eyes are weak, how many of us carry blood pressure tablets for our BP keeps fluctuation, how many of us carry tablets along with us each day just because our heart would not beat correctly. I could go on. Are we also special children just like Viren, Siddharth, Vandit, Minrashah, Jessica.......

1 comment:

Murty said...

Hi Amrita,
Your retrospect & thoughts have cleared my dilemma whether to label my son as autistic.

It's a strange similarity that our 31 month old son Sidharth is also diagnosed as autistic. He was born on July 9, 2004. Everything was like a fairy tale for us till he has turned 2. Last year we have noticed that he was lagging in speech and communication. Currently he is attending speech therapy and we also have booked for the Early Intervention Program which starts next year. He goes to child care 3 days a week

Looks like everything is repeating for us (what you have gone through)after four years. I am so happy to read your son's progress in school. Your son looks so cute, and I am sure he will lead a normal life. I hope the same happens for our son too.
I am aware that every kid is different, but at this stage we can only hope for the best.

Please send your e-mail id to murty_c@yahoo.com. I would like to keep in touch if it's ok with you.

catch you later
murty