Thursday, June 08, 2006

SIDDHARTH

Siddharth : Well let me introduce you to my six year old son Siddharth. Since this boy was two years old, he opened a new world for me. How? Sid, as we love to call him in short, is autistic. Till the time he was born, July 15, 2000, and more precisely till the day the diagnosis came, I was living life in a limbo - trying my best to be a good daughter, a good daughter in law and a good wife. With Sid, I made my choice, I just want to be a good human and in each day of my life to date, this six year old, who has a problem settling in the so called life of the normals, help me just do that, be a good human being, live life with sensitivity.

But then at the end of it all, it's just Siddharth who is important. Let me trace his life for myself. Siddharth did not speak for almost the two and a half years of his life. This is the point where my introduction with autism began. At this time Sid has no contact with the outside world. He had no words and no eye contact. As a mother I never could make out these things. A friend of mine, Jatinder Preet (JP) , who spent a day with Sid made this first diagnosis for me and from the visits to docs began. Finally the diagnosis came and I just did not know what to do as nothing in the name of help was there for me. Two people helped me make a contact with Sid, Pooja, Sid's first teacher and JP. Then as it has to happen, Sid was thrown out of each school he went to, two precisely. The reason at all places was same Sid was hyper and did not respond to his teachers the way they wanted him to. So Sid spent eight months at Ashirwaad a special school where Pooja helped Sid learn some of the tricks and trades of this world. From Ashriwaad Sid went to Darpan again a special school for autistic children and now Sid goes to Drishti, another school which is for normal children but then this school takes five handicapped children each year and integrates them with normal children. This is the first picture of my son Sid, more will follow.