Yesterday was my first day at the Ankur's Anugraha Rehabilitation Centre (ARC).
I was naturally expecting a deal deal from myself.
The first hour was very ordinary.
I even had a feeling of getting bored, just looking at the students and doing practically nothing! We were made to just sit in a room full of students and do nothing, not even talk; for an hour. Man! I started getting the feeling that the session thing each week on such lines would put me in a permanant state of boredom!
But I was wrong. The best was on its way.
We were then split in small groups and were directed to various classrooms, well spaced. We were about four trainees and twelve students in each classroom.
And then the best part began!
A was amazed at the kind of co-operation the students held; sufficient to belittle even a grownup with normal intellect!
And after they all were comfortable in the class, we started with our observation.
And then a strange feeling ran through my spine. The children with seemingly blank faces but twinkling eyes were labelled as 'Autistic' in the materialistic world, but they are indeed more than that.
They seemed to converse through their silence to the energies in and around.
Some kids were talking to themselves, but making a perfect sense of what they aspire, what are the things around, what are their impressions about things... Though irrelevant on the academic base.
Then suddenly a thought struck my mind... Inspite of their connection to the whole different dimension of the material world, they are coaxed to learn in the rut of the normal students for academically sound background. Is it really that important?
Why can't these master minds be just left alone and let them work on their own energies and creativity! Ofcourse, channelising is the important thing!
Afterall, we also are but struggling to make sense out of our lives, whether logically, morally, psychologically! And hence I don't see a point in coaxing these souls with 'special needs' into the trodden path with no definite future other than material gain...
But in a nutshell, the enlightenment has begun... both the ways!
Hey, in some or the other way, we all are autistic! Well, yes this sounds a little strange, but aren't we involved in our own world, don't we have a great deal of discrepancy in our words & actions! But then, everyone is born with a destiny to fulfill! Being born with autism was a part of their destiny, but reaching to the point of knowing self, is where they have to reach! The point I feel is not in coaxing them with "Special Needs!" but it is an effort to give them a normal life which can provide them with a better platform to live just the way other kids or people do & identify what are they! Even though they are believed to be without the awareness of their actions or thoughts, they do have that awareness! It is just that, perhaps, we are not able to gel with them & the perspective from which they look at life! I happened to read the status of someone on facebook, that said, "There are people who look at things as they are & ask why, & some who dream of things which don't exist & ask why not?" Well, that is just a blind opinion, as I have not seen anything of it! But yes, as you've put it rightly, this is where the enlightenment begins!
ReplyDelete:) I have a simple explanation. Enlightment starts both ways because friends can be made both ways, don't we learn more about our friends when we are with them.
ReplyDeleteOne of the best ways to be happy is to have good friends wherever they may be from :)
Happy Independence Day :)
Your thoughts about autism remind me some psychiatrist named Ronald Laing. He was against the "institutional" managing of the mind illness, such as schizophrenia, he thought that hospitals contribute to the development of the problem by "categorizing" the patients as "crazy" or "paranoids" or "schizophrenics". Laing was convinced that schizophrenia was actually a superior state of mind... Well, as you can see you always make me think...
ReplyDeleteKeep writing... Keep thinking...
Thank you all.
ReplyDeleteBut still I think we need to reconsider and reframe what we really mean and aim by" bringing special people in the mainstream"...