Ali is Arpan Mukhopadhyay, son of the authors of this book. Discovered at an early age to be hearing-impaired and dyslexic, Ali was a bright and mischievous child and a free-spirited teenager. Devoted to his friends and talented at art, Ali accumulated a sizeable portfolio of paintings, drawings, etchings, and experiences.
His output peaked in his last few months; Ali died of smoke inhalation while asleep in his room one night. This book is both a memoir and a tribute to the person and his talent, to which parents and friends have contributed. Aamir Khan, whose Taare Zameen Par dealt with dyslexia, contributed a foreword.
As a child grows up through middle school to high school, then college, and beyond, he or she spends less time at home every day, and more and more outside. The parents of all kids down the middle of the road accept this. But some parents must be prepared for the exception: not better, not worse,. But simply different. It was in middle school at Springdales that problems due to Ali’s premature birth eventually surfaced, first spotted by a sensitive teacher.
In class, Ali would sit at the rear and never really pay attention. One day, this lady sent us a note, suggesting that we might want to get his hearing checked. We did, immediately. Ali was found to be at least thirty per cent deficient in the hearing frequencies which people normally speak in. We got him a hearing aid which, after some time, disappeared. He had given it away!
But the more serious problem was detected slightly later. Early one morning, Swapna woke me up, urging me to read an article on dyslexia in the morning paper. Unlike now, dyslexia was a disorder rarely heard about in those days. The doctor who had written it had listed its common symptoms. They were: confusion of ‘b’ and ‘d’, ‘p’ and ‘q’; skipping words while reading; inability to perform simple arithmetic calculations and so on. Ali had almost all of them. Swapna’s intuition proved right again.
We reached for the phone. My cousin, who was a medical doctor, advised us to immediately consult Dr Puri at the Rajkumari Amrit Kaur Centre. I recall that Dr Puri sat in a room with a large glass panel on one side, beyond which was another room full of children’s toys and games. Ali had come with us straight from school in his uniform. He put his satchel down and was chatting and playing with some younger kids. We were made to fill up a detailed form that Dr Puri read. When she looked up, she began, ‘Let’s see, there may be a problem.’ Then she saw Ali, and stopped.
‘Is this the boy?’
‘Yes.’
‘Can’t be!’
She called him in, spoke to him for some time, and sent him for an IQ test. Ali got a pretty good score, but in a peculiar manner. There were large blocks that he did 100 per cent right, while others were all wrong. In the end, her prognosis was: nothing seems to be seriously wrong, but we had to be ‘careful’ with this kid. That was easier said than done. What exactly were we supposed to do, or not do?
We hunted up the author of the original article and took an appointment with her. In this lady’s clinic, the condition of the other dyslexic kids scared us. Most were very quiet, withdrawn, staring blankly at nothing. It seemed unbelievable that Ali — bubbly, full of naughtiness, fun and life — could have anything in common with them. But we listened patiently as the doctor explained.
Dyslexia is not usually spotted early. A kid’s inability to study for any length of time, to spell and write correctly, to do simple arithmetic, is taken as lack of attentiveness. But if, God forbid, teachers and parents put pressure on the child, which is common in our country, then dyslexia aggravates. By the time the child reaches his teens, he could be close to being autistic.
‘Bless yourselves,’ said the doctor, ‘that you fought with his teachers to let him be. Do exactly as you did, but do not forget to get Ali off mathematics as soon as he is through Class X.’ We stared at her, dumbfounded. We had walked the precipice blindfolded. Now, down on earth, we were paralysed with fear.
ALI’S WORLD
AUTHOR: Badal and Swapna Mukhopadhyay
PUBLISHER: Roli
PAGES: 96
PRICE: Rs 995
