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| Spectrum |
Its
phenomenal to know, that one among the many factes of God's creation is "YOU". And there is
another special someone created by God for you, who helps you find yourself in
this lost world..The understanding,
is sometimes just as simple as knowing that someone with color blindness would
see shades of Pink as Gray, and yet at other times it is as horrendous as
accusing a child with color blindness to be reckless about learning something
as simple as colors. Here is a tale
of friendship and bonding shared between an 11 year old little lad and his
neighbour.We were neither
coeval, nor was there a strong need for us to know each other deeply. A reasonable
Acquaintance is stimulating enough for someone to live in a neighbourhood… It’s
what I thought, until! Things turned out to be the other way round.Destiny
manifests itself as a relationship, at different stages of life, and you are
ordained to accept it without prior consent, as though things were predefined!How was I to
know, that Pokémon does not fancy Tarzan cordially. This had nothing to do with
my limited exposure to the world of animation, and neither was it the fact. So
what was it….?!It was a night
of celebration, children who attended my son’s 3rd year Birthday
party, looked at their bundle of joy with eager eyes, as they waited for their
turn while standing in the line to receive their return gifts before they could
leave the party. While they waited for their turn, their arguments ranged from;
“Mine is going to be the best gift”,
to “I will open my gift only when I
reach home”. The evening slowly melted in a glass of their sweet voices…The next two
mornings after the party, brought my life back to the drab. Three days after
the birthday party, I spotted Krish, as I drove my car out from the basement.
He was as usual waving good bye to his dad, as he was leaving for office. Krish
would wave at Mr. Iyer’s car, until it turned towards the main road at the end
of the street.I drove a
little closer to Krish to say a Hello and Good bye that day, as I had gotten to
know him at the party we had hosted. His reciprocation left me numb…….Words he
uttered struck me like lightning. Looking at my face, & speaking to himself
he said… “Look at this Idiot.., who ever
told this wicked witch to speak to me?” Even before I could say a word he
ran inside the gate banging it hard on my face…..Speechless at
his behaviour, I continued to drive. On my way, I was thinking to myself, that
during the last 3 months after we had moved to our new apartment, I had never
seen Krish go to school. I suddenly realized, that his family despite of the
warm invitation, had not attended our house warming ceremony.As I reached my
office gates, I told myself that I should meet Mrs. Iyer that evening once I
reached home after work.Mrs. Iyer was
someone who rendered herself beyond her age. My mother at 60 looked more
youthful than Mrs. Iyer at 42. Mrs. Iyer’s Gray head laid still on her wise
shoulders.Determined to
meet her, I stepped into my house that evening after work. Little did I know
that destiny had other plans for me…? As I freshened up and was getting into
something more comfortable to wear, my mother asked me, “what fascinated you to dab the laundry with mud”. With a frown on
my face, I rushed to the balcony, only for my wrath to get the better of me…I rushed right
back inside the house and charged towards the intercom, and called my security
guard to come immediately to the passage behind by balcony. The moment he
appeared in the passage, I asked him, what had caused the mess? How does
something like this go unnoticed by him? I demanded for an explanation. It was
evident that this was somebody’s rotten action. His response fumbled, and I
could smell something fishy about the whole situation. Just then I saw Mr. Iyer’s
Gardner appear in their back yard, & hoping to get some insight, I
clarified with him as well. The response did not differ much….. It was now evident,
that facts were not disclosed. Later I called my security inside, and got to know
that, Krish in the afternoon was uncontrollable, and kept throwing mud on my
clothes, and that he had to be tied up literally before he was taken inside his
home.My mother told
me that I should immediately go meet Mrs. Iyer, and ensure this doesn’t happen
again. I thought it was not appropriate, and that I should put this off for
some time later, until Mrs. Iyer made the first move. Intuitively I knew, there
was something wrong. I told my mother to
be alert when my husband & I were out at work, & to ensure that no harm
came to her & my son Sai, when they went out to play in the balcony, I then
somehow calmed my mother’s nerves down.A week later on
a Sunday afternoon, when my husband was seated in the balcony watching my son
playing on his rocking horse, a host of tiny sharp stones entered the balcony
hurting my son, luckily not so badly. I heard my husband scream “Hey you! stop
that nonsense”. I rushed out from the kitchen, and called Mrs. Iyer to come
out, upon learning what had happened.Mrs. Iyer came
out yelling, “Why the hell are you
screaming out my name Deepthi”. I was surprised at her behaviour, &
wrath at no fault of mine. This only had to get worse, with my mother charging
in like a body guard who protects the VIP. I was about to start a conversation,
but my mother made sure she started the war. “Don’t you dare speak like that to my daughter? Raise your compound wall
and not your voice” she told Mrs. Iyer. My husband & I completely
failed to control the situation. Mrs. Iyer too out did my mother...“You better sell your apartment and go
elsewhere to live. My compound wall will not be altered”. While the two warriors were fighting
the battle, my eyes stayed fixed upon Krish, who was standing behind his mother
laughing, & giggling, completely unaffected.
In a few
moments I realized, Mrs. Iyer continued to fight without any real intention to
fight. She would constantly reconfirm with an eye contact with her son, that he
was happy about the fact that she was protecting him. Things sometimes are
never exactly the way we see it. What is projected is not what reality is… The
moment this thought ended in my head, I dragged my mom inside the house,
determined to meet Mrs. Iyer when she came out for her morning walk the next
morning.Sharp at 6:30
am the next morning I headed towards the Booth Grounds Community Park behind my
apartment. I saw Mrs. Iyer and smiled, she turned her face away and started
walking faster. I ran and held her hand, and when she looked into my eyes, I
could see a little anguish, & a little embarrassment, in her eyes. They
were brimming with tears. She blurted: "I am sorry Deepthi, but I
was just being a mother. My son is hypersensitive, short tempered, and
self-obsessed. Autism is painful and sometimes shameful". “Krish found his
dreams shattered, inside the wrapped return gift box on the night of your son’s
birthday. He feels the world is supposed to know what he likes and dislikes. He
was sure you had given him a Pokémon, but when he found a printed Tarzan mug,
he smashed it to pieces on the ground.”
“We as his parents during his growing
years had to sacrifice a lot to establish our relationship with him as our
child. His idea about love and affection is that, his demands should be
immediately met, and his likes and dislikes should be understood even without
he disclosing them. He accompanied us to your party that night because, I
accidentally told him you were gifting him a Pokémon. We could not leave him at
home alone, and were caught awkwardly as we could not ignore your second
invitation after the house warming. It is difficult for us to explain to the
society, why we don’t attend social gatherings.” “Deepthi can you do me a kind
favour…. Would you kindly apologize to Krish and bring him a Pokémon? We have
promised him, that you would do this.”I was choked, I
promised Mrs. Iyer to come later in the day and establish a fresh relationship
with Krish.I met Krish
that day, apologized, and bought him a Pokémon. Krish was very happy. I learnt
from the Iyers that Love is all about giving, and spreading, and not expecting
anything in return.Krish after
four years from the day of this incident, is gradually changing, and growing up
with all of us in a loving atmosphere, and is my best buddy!Those who do
not understand the spectrum of his world, continue to accuse him of being
reckless about not learning something as simple as names of the colours.As for all of
us, who know Krish… We know that Pink is Gray….
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