The Danny effect and the Cooper effect

With all the free time I have now (thanks to Cooper) I thought of writing something here. 

This is Cooper, a friend's dog, and whenever I go home to Nagercoil, we generally hang out together, talking and taking Cooper for long walks in the colony. This time was no different, we were on our walk when this stray little street dog started barking and I was holding cooper's leash... my hand in that loop when Cooper suddenly became way excited than usual and took off after the stray like Flash on steroids. He dragged me along and I couldn't keep up; I stumbled, fell on the bad road and bruised myself. 

And since I had nothing better to do, I made a collage of the wounds to send to my sister... who found it hilarious that I fell. So anyway, went to the doc, got my tetanus shot and now I'm just taking it easy for the next few days. And one person has been constantly on my mind since this incident, Danny.

I met Danny about 12 years ago in Santhi Nilayam, the special school I used to work in. He was a five year old Down's syndrome boy who rarely spoke, he was extremely shy. Ask him anything and he would look down, but ask him about his younger sister and you would see a smile on his face. One day in school, he jammed his little finger in a door. It was jammed quite tight, but all he did was stand there with a tear running down his face. Somebody else saw this and told the nuns, they went to see and the top bit of his little finger was ripped, it was hanging by a shred of flesh. And Danny, just stood there with tears running down his face, not a sound out of him. They quickly put the tip back on wrapped it up in cotton and carried him to the rickshaw to take him to the nearest hospital. In the hospital too, the doctor was stitching up this little kid's finger yet he did not utter a sound, just silent tears falling from his eyes. My God, I was stunned... he stole everybody's heart. He must have been in immense pain, yet not one sound or tantrum, he just let the tears fall. After the stitches were in place the doctor said he was a brave kid, then Danny lifted his head looked the doctor in the eye and said that he would go home and tell his mother about this. What a kid, that day I knew these kids were extraordinarily special. I keep thinking about him cause this pains a little too... that's when I see his cherubic face with the soundless tears.