The Special Child
Weekends are meant for outings. Specially so for my son.
He loves going to malls, playing video games, enjoying creamy pastries and having fun.
We as parents also do not mind getting into our fineries and stepping out from the usual grind. While playing on the lawns of a well-known mall which has installed slides and kids’ merry-go-rounds ,we see other parents similarly enjoying playing with their kids. It’s kind of a de-ja-vu……The children talking to their mammas and the mammas taking care to talk and replying back in English.
There were many children well dressed, covering themselves from top to bottom to fight the cold and enjoying the feeble sunlight which sometimes plays hide and seek in these cold days.
Suddenly there came in, a family of four. The parents and their two children. The girl must have been around 10 and the boy around 8. It was obvious that they were “not well to do”. The mother had a single old faded sweater as her only cold protection. I was saddened by looking at the children not wearing stockings or socks and mentioned the same to the husband. They were conveniently being pushed aside by the “well off children”……
Somehow, I have this peculiar habit of observing people to gauge what could be their lifestyle, their ways of being happy and so on. I noticed something was amiss in the big boy…..He was not talking. He was only making some incoherent sounds…ugh..ugh..like while running hither and thither. I was keenly observing the family who was making all attempts to be happy.My husband and I thought on the same lines….see how everyone takes out happiness from the mundane, even if poor…..and both of us were feeling sympathetic towards the boy.My husband was sitting on a stile and was suddenly taken aback by a hard push by the boy who in his insensible way of running did it by mistake.I was also startled for a while.The mother who hardly looked educated immediately came to us and said “sorry sorry….he is unable to speak… and goes to a special school”………
We said……No no…it’s o.k.
But all the while felt that
It isn’t o.k …educated,rich people have hit us intentionally by their cars from behind and have never said sorry……
The so called well-dressed ladies have expected me to open the lift doors for them and pulled their trolleys inside….with never a feeling of gratitute….
The so called elites have thought it’s their birth right to take away the chair from our restaurant tables if they find any one not occupying it at that instance and have never bothered to use their Ps or Qs.
Yes,…..special children have special parents…….humble to the core………May God Bless them.