Contemplations and Ruminations

A recent conference with the cousins somehow got centered on literature and everybody kept spewing forth shakespearean dialogues. (At the end of it all Ryan came to the conclusion that Shakespeare probably didn't get laid much, what with nobody being able to understand his dialogues.) That aside, I remembered this poem by Rudyard Kipling, IF . Read it somewhere a few years back and thought it was beautiful... (no, it isn't about flowers or rainbows or birds). If If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you; If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too; If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies, Or, being hated, don't give way to hating, And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise; If you can dream - and not make dreams your master; If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim; If you can meet with triumph and disa...

This kid in school was absent, so after I reached home from work I rang up his mom to find out what happened. He did not sleep whole night because of a very congested chest, it was difficult for him to breathe. This is very common for that kid, and for many other down's syndrome children... they have perpetual colds. After speaking a few minutes, I told the mom that since its a Friday I have to go to church now for the way of the cross . She said oh yeah... it's Friday. Then she said somethin that put everythin else out of my mind. She said, " Here it happens every day at home... the way of the cross. " This is true, when her son was born, they weren't sure if he was going to survive... his immune system was very weak, used to fall sick often, catch infections so easily. From the moment he was born, he became her life.... took over her life. She lives for him now and its not an easy job. She has to keep rushing back and forth between hospitals and spending so m...

Went to Central Institute on Mental Retardation, Trivandrum yesterday and saw these older students performing a classical dance and playing the sitar. It was amazingly synchronous and so beautiful, everybody was blown away. One of the kids (name's Arun) playing the Sitar, is non verbal and he can't hear. He learnt the sitar through observation of the hand movement.They played 'Raghupati Ravan Raja ram' and another church song, it was one of the most amazing moments ever. Visited the vocational units too and saw the children learning all sorts of vocational activity like tailoring, book binding, making files, craft unit, chalk candle and soap unit.... many other things. They made this cup up here out of coconut shell, how neat is that.... Through dedicated and patient training anythin is possible.....

My folks are after me to buy jewellery.... so went to this place and found a few nice stuff. The others were just too ugly, I can't seem to understand how people can actually pay money for them and wear them in public. Well, to each his own... Went to a shop to buy some things and met these 10th standard boys there. They had come to buy a chair (the one the boy is sitting on) for their class teacher after the teacher kicked them out of his classroom for breaking his chair. And they bought this really really old faded chair for him. I told them to get something nice since they were paying for it. They said, "For that school, this chair is more than enough." That's Priyanka and Sally making mango rasam, mango juice, mango chutney with the one mango they managed to get from somewhere.

That's monica and harihara the new kid in school. While everybody was upstairs practicing for the school day, this guy enters the office room and starts fiddling with everythin there.... finally got him to sit in that chair. And then he started fiddling with the keyboard, the mouse and accidently switched off the computer two or three times. That's when I removed my camera and tried to keep him out of trouble by making him pose for a number of pictures. He's a kid with Cerebral Palsy (CP) and he's always falling down and scrambling up again and hitting somethin else on his way. (Cerebral palsy refers to any one of a number of neurological disorders that appear in infancy or early childhood and permanently affects body movement and muscle coordination.) He was crying in school one day and I asked him why... asked him if he was hungry, he shook his head yes. So I took him to the convent and the sister gave him a packet of biscuits. He brought it to me and gestured to...