She is special, she will always be

Born healthy but otherwise, this little girl was tagged ‘abnormal’ by the conservative society. 

But it is said that Mothers are God’s way of inhabiting the human world. 

She fought every glare, every savage attempt of hostility aimed at her demure ‘special’ daughter who bore the brunt of being a Down’s Syndrome. 

With a hole in her heart that won’t ever heal, her family has wrapped her in arms of love and tears of warmth; for all they know not is when it will be her last. 

But before she goes, she will dance to a tune and sing a melody that will resound in hearts for the remainder of a lifetime.

In pursuit of happiness

He often wonders why other children laugh at him as he walks down the street. 

One diwali, the lights and sounds of firecrackers sparked off a string of reactions in him and for the first time in 18 years violence gave way. 

He badgered his mother, but she believes that it didn't hurt that bad – a mother’s divine manifestation that passes off unexplained. 

He punishes himself to hunger when he realizes his unruly behaviour and prays to meet daddy who is away in another country, earning for his family. 

He dreams of going there someday, to earn like daddy and meet Abu in the grave – his cousin who passed away in war.

Walking on love

She was born crippled because the doctor was on a vacation and the cesarean had to wait; crutches grew to become her only friends.

Her younger brother emulated her faulty walking style and eventually conditioned his mind and body to behave in that manner. 

Her sister is angry and filled with vengeance because her ‘special’ siblings took away all the love and attention that were rightfully hers. 

She has been kept away from her siblings because the doctor believes her to have had an adverse effect on both of them. 

In the helpless despise of her mother, she drags her feet along the abandoned lanes of loneliness in the hope of some acceptance.

Lost in the ashes

He is proud because he can travel all alone, showing the bus conductor a slip with the names of the bus stops he needs to get down at. 

He deals with glaring eyes and peculiar reactions with nothing but an innocent smile. 

He has suffered a heart attack but still puts up a brave front in the face of reality – his brain damage that has deterred him from leading a life that he could have had otherwise. 

This 6 feet tall boy-man will hug you like a kindergarten baby – he cries and complains like one too. 

But in a family filled with highly educated and accomplished ‘normal’ people, will this bespectacled, balding 50 year old special boy ever prove his worth?