http://www.differenttruths.com/editors-picks/yashika/
Yashika 26 April 2018
Yashika 26 April 2018
Yashika
---------
It was Sunday. A small get together
was planned by Lalita at her house. Relatives and friends were enjoying the
grub when a young boy came running.
“Aunti, Yashika is throwing her toys out of the window and is shouting.”
Lalita rushed to Yashika’s room. Yashika saw her mother but did not look at
her. When Lalita tried to talk to her, she kept her head down and all of a
sudden she started blubbering. Lalita saw people pouring into the room. Lalita,
in order to make her comfortable, tried to embrace her but she was shooed
away. She asked her in soft but firm
voice the reason of her outburst but Yashika was not able to express fully. A
few children present there started laughing at her predicament. Frustration was
writ large on Yashika. Anger had taken over her. She charged towards children
with her clenched fists. One of the relatives asked Lalita. “What is wrong with
her, Lalita ?”Lalita did not say anything.
She hugged Yashika, smooched her and made her to calm down. Soon the
crowd in the room dispersed to another room.
------------
Few days later.
Lalita was not in her elements. She
entered the room throwing her purse on the bed and started weeping which
gradually turned into sobbing. The tears
must have cleared the haze and lightened her mind. She got up, went to the
washroom, splashed her face with cold water, wiped it with a towel and came
back to the room. She stopped in the middle of the room engrossed in her
thoughts. After a while she took deep breath and uttered to nobody. “I have
lost you, I am not going to lose her” She was a single mother having lost her
husband three years ago while fighting with terrorists in J & K . Yashika
was hardly two years old then.
-----------------
One day.
It was evening. Six years old Yashika
was playing with her teddy when she saw her mother Lalita. Lalita spread her arms calling her name.
Yashika did not bother to reciprocate but muttered few words and proceeded to play with her teddy ignoring her mother’s
presence in the room. Lalita stood there
helpless. She had been noticing changes in Yashika’s behavior since the death
of her father. Yashika had become introvert. Her speech had become incoherent
and sometimes she could speak only few words or phrases. Yashika was of robust
health yet mental growth including her speech was a matter of concern to
Lalita. Whenever Yashika was asked a
question, she used to stare at nothing. She seemed to be a dumb witted girl but Lalita always wondered at Yashika’s
capabilities of building small yet
meaningful things from the moulds and blocks whenever she was in playful mood. She marvelled at her skill of drawing
sketches. Till date Lalita was living constantly in denial mode hoping that
there was nothing wrong with her only child.
However her fears turned into the reality when her paediatrician finally
declared that she was an autistic child having
autism spectrum disorder (ASD) which in plain terms was an abnormality
affecting neurodevelopment of a child.
Lalita was heartbroken. She had come to the terms after her husband’s martyrdom
but this was a terrible disaster to strike her so far as her present life was
concerned.
----------------------
Lalita was not a woman of weak legs.
She was always up to the challenging tasks and Yashika’s medical condition of
different type made her to brave this grave challenge too. She knew it was of
no use to be a cribbing, sobbing mother, getting stressed or depressed. She
knew her child was not a bad one and manner less as everyone thought so. She knew Yashika was fast becoming emotional
leading to her outbursts sometimes. She knew Yashika was a matter of discussion
amongst her extended family, friends and
member of society who were unable to appreciate the difficulties of an
autistic child and his/her parents. She also knew that Yashika needed special
care. Lord Krishna had been merciful as Yashika was diagnosed this different
condition at an early stages of her life.
She made it a point to plan her treatment, to provide Yashika proper
care, treat her lovingly, make her creative
and find the ways to increase her motor skills. Parenting had become
more than a cause to her. She bought number of books on autism which also
included a coffee table book on the personalities who suffered from ASD.
--------------------
Few months later.
Yashika was in the room with her
mother. Lalita was watching TV. Yashika
seemed to be interested as the program was visually comprehensible. TV
was showing fun games with paper. Yashika heard children shouting watching a
paper boat in one of the children’s hand.
She also took a paper in her hand. She tried to fold it in many ways.
Soon she got frustrated and started throwing things. Lalita got up, patted her,
got her attention and folded the paper from four corners to make a paper boat.
She repeated this exercise many times over. Yashika was keenly watching the
making of paper boats. Lalita went to
kitchen for some time and when she returned to room, she found a paper boat
made by Yashika on her own. Her joy was simply speechless.
Another day Lalita saw Yashika keenly browsing through the coffee table
book. She pointed to pictures. Lalita took her into lap and tried to make her
understand the names of personalities and then lovingly said, “ Yashi dear,
they all were like you. They did not bother about their mental limitations in
their life and look they all have become great in their respective chosen
fields.” Yashika took her own sweet time
before she blinked thrice with a broad smile and nodded her head several times.
Time flew by.
Yashika was seven years old. She was
a school going girl. Last few years were unnerving for both Yashika and
Naraini. Yashika wanted to get out that situation herself but always found
herself in a traffic jam of jumbled thoughts and actions from where she could
not come out though she has developed a sort of rapport with her mother, a few
of the children of her society and classmates as well. The change however
little was more comforting for her mother. Yashika picked up skills to draw
sketches and portraits of anything which Yashika took fancy of. Headmistress of
her school understanding her special needs, made all arrangement to hone her
skills in her own way. Her confidence level rose appreciably. She had started
mingling with the children and had full confidence in her mother. Lalita on her
part was always there for her. Slowly and gradually some of her immediate
relatives and friends too got involved in her smooth upbringing. Lalita had put
Yashika under the guidance of a behavioural therapist. Yashika had started to
express herself step by step but she often used to get angry on the smallest
pretext due to lack of expressiveness. On the advice of her behavioural
therapist Lalita either ignored her tantrums completely or fulfilled her
demands to sooth her nerves. Both methods worked.
----------------------
Once the final exams were over, the
school organized a science and social exhibition. Students displayed their
talents through items which were socially useful. The judges including the
Headmistress of the school was making notes of each and every science exhibits
and artworks. The main judge noticed a young girl standing in a corner, lost in
her thoughts, holding a medium size sketch book in her hand. He went to her.
The Headmistress told him that she was Yashika. He patted her and asked her to
show him the sketchbook. Yashika did not want to part with her sketch book but
feeling assured by the presence of the Head Mam she shyly handed over the
sketchbook to him. She had beautifully sketched portraits of Albert Einstein,
Issac Newton and Emily Dickson. The Judges were highly impressed with her
talent, more so when they were told that Yashika was an autistic child. The
main judge asked Yashika ,” what is your name ?” Yashika stood there thinking
and then with staggered voice she said, “ Y..shi…kaaa.”
“Who are these ?” one of Judges asked
her turning the pages of the sketch book.
Yashika again kept quite for a while.
She was watching her feet and then replied, “ I ” “ All I “
Her answer though, was unexpected. It
was something deep which touched the core of the heart of the Judges. The
answer kept resounded in the minds of all the judges. It was clear that she had
associated herself with these famous ones as these celebrities were themselves
plagued with SAD syndrome. The portraits were sketched to the minute details
making them come alive that made Judges to gush about her impressive talent.
--------------------
All children were asked to assemble in the
auditorium along with their parents. Results were announced. The second best
talent trophy was bagged by Yashika. As soon as Yashika heard her name, she
shouted and kept on shouting till she was hugged tightly by Lalita. She went
with Yashika to the podium. Everyone gave them a standing ovation. Yashika was
so happy that she went to Head mam and kissed her repeatedly. The main judge
who was also the Chairman of a famous arts school in the town, announced grant
of admission and scholarship to Yashika in his school. Lalita could not believe
the turn of events. Tears rolled down her cheek and young Yashika ran towards
her whipping her tears with her small hands. Yashika had crossed main hurdle
and the end goal seemed to be nearer than far as her name actually meant-
Glorious.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
All rights reserved/Tribhawan Kaul
1630 words
===============================================
