The game

ok now mostly people ask me why only girls are your guest bloggers?? why not guys?? ... I got an email from my reader who said, "thats not fair and guys do write better" .. all I can say is guys have no time for my blog hehe girls keep the guys busy .. m just returning the favor and  keeping the girls busy by making them write on my blog.

So who is todays guest blogger ???? she is 5"2', intelligent, creative... she paints on her house walls for fun  (i have hired her to paint mine too) artistic, spontaneous, cute, bubbly, writes really well, travels all the time from hometown to manytowns, loves wine and beaches ... I am  glad to have Unnita Chatterji as my guest blogger, her post is very different and touching.. with a little twist in the tail she has penned down a real master piece. 

All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

It was not a very long time ago, that Avika had been introduced to the world of Special Education. In a period of 7 months of volunteering in an inclusive school, working with children with different disorders, she knew this is what she wanted to do, work with people from the world upside down, for the rest of her life.

After attaining couple of degrees in special education, her life was now bound around a 16 years old boy, Reet, a boy with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

In her initial months of work with him, she felt that the boy was a genius. He could operate 5 digits sums orally, within seconds, he remembered dates, addresses, birthdays of his friends and teachers, he could tell the day if any date in any year was given to him, he loved to sing songs, paint and play word finding games. With every next session, she would find something very interesting about Reet, something new, and think in her mind as how different was he, from the rest of the World, the World considered “normal” by many.

Her time in and outside school was spent in reading books on methods and strategies of teaching children with Autism, how to work on their communication abilities, how to develop functional skills like going to the market and making a purchase of list of things, how to behave in social settings etcetera. All her researches and readings surrounded Reet and his requirements.

Leading an independent life in a developed city comes with much needed freedom for an ambitious mind. But what comes along is loneliness, struggle to keep one healthy, eat and sleep on time and so on. For a 26 years old girl, she had seen them all. Days  where a sandwich would be all for breakfast, lunch and dinner, to the space required to concentrate on the strategies to be planned to manage a particular behavior of a child.

Avika had friends, had relationships, but what she got from this 16 years old boy was beyond her imaginations.

*-*

In a family with three young sons to bring up, Reet was brought up in tough conditions. His father worked in a company which produced ceiling fans, at meager wage, and his mother besides taking care of the family, taught English to the neighboring kids. In a metropolitan city, it goes without saying that the money was not enough.

Reet’s family had shifted to the city from a small village from the North of India. Reet was closest to his mother and his second brother, Kundan. There were incidents when Reet would come to school, and run and hide under the teacher’s table screaming “Papa, don’t hit me”. The matter was not discussed much with his mother, but it was apparent that there were number of problems to be taken care of.

Coming to school was blessing for the child. Not only because he received various therapies and training from here, but also because he could come out of his one room flat, the journey to school included a lot of walking, train ride and different other things which amused the child. Moreover in school, he could run on the school play ground, cycle, skate, solve Math worksheets, work on the computer, paint, and see the changes in the daily time table; he could do all that he loved to do.

In a very interesting manner, the child was hardly seen without a smile. Shutting his ears from the outside noise, he would sit at times, in his cubicle, rock to and fro, humming the tune of his video game, often gazing at the class calendar, and writing some numbers in air or on the desk with his index finger, smiling, lost in his world, no matter why, or how, Reet was happy, sometimes running to his other friends, saying hello to them, other times typing random digits on the calculator, Reet smiled.

For Avika, where happiness seemed far-fetched, she would look deep in his eyes, eyes which hardly met hers, eyes which were mostly lost, but happy.

*-*

“Hi Reet, hang your bag and come inside!”

“Good after noon Avika Teacher…..mmmmm”

“Good afternoon, how are you?”

“I am fine…th..tha…tha…thank you..(blinking and twisting eyebrows)”

“Good job, Reet said ‘Thank you’”.

This had been the usual pattern of the beginning of their day. For some reason Reet believed that the use of magic words like ‘thank you’, ‘please’ and ‘sorry’ were not needed to be said without reason. He had immense difficulty in apologizing to a friend for beating him up, because he was making sound.

So this had been included in his program for the year to teach him to use these words appropriately in class and otherwise and Avika had maintained herself in using the magic words.

With every passing session, Avika realized that the child had an excellent learning speed. He picked up names of states in the country with their capitals, picked up on certain chapters from English grammar, learnt to play difficult games like UNO and so on. She realized there was a lot that could be done with him, and she wanted to go beyond the school curriculum to see how much Reet could achieve and progress.

There were times when Avika would find Reet just like any other boy in his teens. He preferred her to keep her hair loose than tying it up in a pony tail, he would like if she would wear Indian outfit than wearing casuals to school, and he liked it when Avika would wear ear-rings to work. Those were the days when he would come to her, look at her very closely and smile. Sometimes he would touch Avika’s ear-rings and gaze at them, murmuring softly “ear-rings….ear-rings…”

*-*

In her working span with Reet, Avika had seen a lot of his sides, anger, love, being naughty, being caring and others; sides which remained hidden often to other “normal” people. With tackling every behavior she felt a bond growing.

‘For that very instance, the World had gone blank for Avika. She saw darkness and heard nothing. She just felt, the immense pain which she underwent and the oozing tears from her eyes. She had faced Reet’s temper in the past, and this was the worst of them all. On asking about his home work, Reet had reacted aggressively and had decided to blow some punches on Avika. Once in the past he had hit Avika when asked to do a certain activity. She had to move back and look for a chair to sit down. She felt dizzy. As she crouched holding her hand on the chair, she felt a cold wrap around her legs. Looking at her with scared eyes Reet came to her and held her tight.

Reet hit Avika.

Sorry Avika…..Sorry….Sorry….Sorry Avika…

“Will I ever understand an Autistic mind?” she thought, how easily is he saying ‘’Sorry’’.

She couldn’t be upset with him. She picked him up.

“Reet, hitting teacher is bad”, she said wiping off her tears.

Reet sorry Avika….

Smiling she pat him on his head and ruffled his hair.’

*-*

In the outside world, Avika would often feel lost amongst the normal people. She would fail to comprehend the thinking, the behavior, the rage and depression of people around her. There were times when she felt cluster-phobic. And then she would spend a lot of time alone at the beach or sitting on the window sill of her flat, gazing at the sky and thinking how simple the other world is. There is no lie, betrayal, pretence, no meaningless norms nor rules to stick to. There is only straight communication, given that one has the abilities to comprehend them, likes, dislikes, all put up in the front.

*-*

Avika started planning Reet’s session much in advance. She would keep all her visual aids ready, prepare his worksheets, and keep the fake money ready to practice money transaction with him in a simulated setting. Her program for Reet’s academic year kept increasing.

She included working on the computer. Typing on the word, making excel record sheets, printing sheets, making power point presentations were now amongst his daily activities. Avika found that Reet was extra ordinarily fast on the computer. He would sit at a stretch for couple of hours working on the computer, his behaviors of making the humming sound, rocking to and fro, and running in the school building during session times had interestingly come down. With Reet’s progress, Avika grew, her passion for working with him expanded. Her mind ran in different directions to gather all that what she could give him.

*-*

Avika had started staying alone most of the time, often lying to her friends to avoid company. The get-togethers felt like a crowd now, the sound of people talking around her felt like noise. The casual phone calls, texts and chats seemed meaningless. Often she would be cooking to herself, humming songs, not responding to the continuous knocks on the door. Not that she was inattentive, but because she didn’t want to entertain people.

*-*

Given that Reet was now fluent on the computer, Avika had to think what other activities could be taught to him to bring him as near to living a normal life as possible. Pondering on it, she decided to now include the phone. Avika thought it was important for Reet to learn to talk on the phone. If her hard work and God’s grace would come true, may be Reet would be working man someday, and then it would be necessary for him to be able to use the phone.

Avika started the sessions with her phone. A phone on which Reet would learn to dial his first call, receive and talk to another teacher calling from the staff room. Avika was excited about this new activity. She somehow knew it would be an easy task for him and he would pick it up fast.

Getting the big white Samsung phone in his hand, Reet slid it unlock. Very naturally he touched the menu, and slid screens after screens checking out the applications.

“Kundan- Nokia….Avika teacher-Samsung”

Avika smiled.

“Samsung- good”

*-*

The telephone activity grew to be Reet’s new favorite activity. He had learnt to receive calls, he would say “I am fine, thank you” much easily on the phone. The only reward which he wanted after doing the activity was to be allowed to play Sub-way Surfer on Avika’s phone. A game in which a young boy ran on railway tracks, escaping from the chasing policeman, dodging the trains, collecting money and other rewards . He would softly hum the rhythmic sound of the train and run his fingers swiftly to play the game. No doubt Avika was happy to see him play. He deserved that, she smiled.

*-*

Sitting on the window sill, as Avika moved her eyes from the cloudy sky to the lines of the page of the book she was reading, she felt relaxed. Pondering on the characters in the novel and relating their reactions to the war with a natural calamity, she was deep in the story.

“How people die in wars, people lose their houses, their loved ones, their property, so much loss. Then the country takes so much time and money to recover from the losses of the war. The economy falls down. The Government should find a middle……

Wait…what was that….??

Was I doing it for a long time…???”

Avika found, she was tapping the pencil in her hand…tapping it like the rolling train. Like the way Reet does sometimes during her sessions, especially while solving worksheets. How long was she doing this? She felt relaxed indeed, but somewhere she was worried.

*-*

With every passing session, Reet would show immense interest in Sub-way Surfer. He would finish all his activities only so that he could play the game. Also at times, he would secretly escape from his desk looking for Avika’s phone. Avika knew that Autistic children had fixations, but she did not realize that this was one of them.

*-*

This was just the beginning. Avika noticed the changes in her behavior. Often she would hide out in the bathroom, and hum. Sitting in a meeting she would desperately feel the need to rock to and fro. Walking on the street the sound of cars seemed like some huge speakers ringing on her ears, she wanted to just shut her ears and hum. She felt these changes were involuntary. She knew she had to stop them, but did not know how.

Avika was disturbed.

*-*

From the teachers to the helpers, everyone in the school went out looking for Reet. In a span of couple of minutes, Reet went missing from school. Reet’s mother had gone speechless, for she didn’t know where to look for him. Had he gone out of school? Where should we start looking from? The bathroom, other classrooms, the conference room, kitchen, he was nowhere.

Avika had tears in her eyes, for she didn’t know how she could miss him, when she was in the same classroom with him. He slid out of the main door like a sly cat and vanished. After almost hours of frantic search, the school management finally decided to report a police complain. Reet’s mother had started feeling sick, every vein in her thin body, trembling.

Covered in dust Reet came down smiling from the loft in the kitchen, with Avika’s phone in his hand. How had he reached there? How did he climb up there?  Reet’s mother ran to him to take him in his arms. It didn’t matter how he had gone up there, just the fact that he was safe, was more than anything to her.

Struggling out of her, he murmured, “Sub-way Surfer… Sub-way Surfer…”

*-*

Avika knew it was time to stop the game business with Reet. She understood that he had established a fixation with the game. She knew it was her fault. She should have reduced the availability of it to Reet. She was also upset with Reet. She knew that Reet knew that it was wrong to run away.

That day, the session started differently. Avika didn’t ask him how he was doing, she instead only instructed him to sit at his desk. Reet came up to her, smiling, saying “Sub-way Surfer… Sub-way Surfer….”

“No Sub-way Surfer from today”, she snapped.

“Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes Sub-way Surfer….” Reet screamed, shutting his ears, closing his eyes, bending down on the floor.

This has to stop.

Avika bent down, removing his hands from his ears said, “No Sub-way Surfer from today”

Avika had never heard Reet scream this loud. He pushed her back and ran out of the door. In the flash of the moment Avika knew she had to run behind him. She had lost him before, but not today.

But today was a different day, it was impossible to keep up to the strong legs of the 16 years old. Avika didn’t give up. He had crossed the school main gate, running far away in the street, Avika called him from behind, telling him to relax, to calm down.

“Sub-way Surfer…yes, yes, yes, yes, yes Sub-way Surfer”, screamed Reet.

Avika saw him running towards the railway tracks that ran behind the school.

Reet please wait, calm down.

He was running on the tracks.

Where were her researches, her strategies, her methods? 

She had to stop him. She had given him the Sub-way Surfer.

Reet please come back.

“Sub-way Surfer…”

“Samsung-good”

“Ear-ring….ear-rings….”

“I am fine Avika Teacher, th..tha…tha…thank you..”

Avika could hear the thumping of the train. Was it the train or was she humming?

The rhythm! The deadly rhythm!

Thump..thump…thump…

*-*

Reet’s mother had to be carried away, as she had fallen unconscious. The teachers, the principal, the helpers and few parents, stood there astounded.

Sitting near Reet, covered in his blood, was Avika, rocking, to and fro, shutting her ears from the meaningless noise, humming loudly…the tune of the video game…..

*-*

 "I am usually a closed person, therefore writing means a way of communicating to people, it gives me peace and satisfaction. It was fun writing here, as its quite a popular blog... I see a number of exciting articles. I am sure my story is going to reach to a number of readers" - Unnita Chatterji