Taare Zameen Par

Her name is N and she is one of the most beautiful kid that I have interacted with. Her smile just melts my heart. Her innocent questions make me think if I have actually forgotten what life is all about. She giggles and hits her forehead every time she gets the ‘Big fish, small fish’ game wrong. She likes the complications of the game...I can see that. I can’t help but fall in love with this adorable soul. She is my friend forever.

Her autism is evident for the first 5 minutes only. After that the condition just fades away and this energetic, bubby, 10 yr old child comes to life. I am thankful to Kilikili for introducing me to her. Kilikili is an organization that is working towards creating play spaces that will be accessible to all children and thereby breaking all barriers between regular kids and kids with developmental issues. Thanks to their efforts Coles Park is today India’s first inclusive play ground.

A fortnight ago, my friend and I decided to volunteer for this program, impromptu. We were supposed to report at 8:30 on a Saturday. We were obviously there by 9 am. 4 years in Bangalore, staying in Cox town, I have never been inside Coles Park. It’s a pity, considering it is such a cheerful place, especially with all those kids running around. I love kids and when I say that I don’t mean the way everyone says ‘I love kids’. I genuinely love kid. Otherwise an impatient person, I have all the worlds fortitude to handle them and answer their questions for hours. So when we were told that each one of us has to escort three kids between the age of 8-10, 2 from regular schools and one from the special school, I was all excited. The flow of events was pretty much set. They will call out kids in random order and pair them up, then volunteers will allotted by a casual show of hands. That’s how I met N, R and K. N, R & I immediately warmed up to each other but K had this ‘I don’t want to be caught dead with these three girls’ kinda look. I kept insisting that he stay with the group but he would make excuses to run away with his friends while R was busy building castles for N in the sand dunes. R was running around from one play equipment to another. But N & I would invariably end up on the swing. She loves the swing just like me. I had actually forgotten how much I used to love to swing when I was a kid. I guess my love for bikes started from there. Breeze rushing through your hair, accelerating speed, the sense of risk. You would think that you are there to escort the kids, helping them with play therapy, but these kids and the playground surfaced feelings which I had long buried deep inside my memory. At times I was feeling guilty for making the whole situation about myself but I couldn’t help but forget my role and was be constantly aware of the impact they were having on me.

Since N had frequented the park more than I had, in a long time, she was actually the one running the show. When I asked her if she wanted to sit on the merry-go-round, she said very curtly “That’s for small kids. Cant you see”. I could do nothing but look sheepishly at R and R had this ‘don’t worry…not all is lost’ look on her face. Ahem! The one thing that worried me when I enrolled into the program was that I should not in any way offend the kids by patronizing them, but trust me ha ha, that ain’t gonna happen.

We had strict instructions about not taking pictures with the kids or do anything that will blemish the kid’s dignity. Hence I will not delve into the details of our interactions anymore.

Kilikili conducts these activities quarterly. All updates on new projects and programs are posted on their website http://www.kilikili.org/. Do drop in and take a look because that Saturday morning amongst the great hum of activities, swings, sand dunes, slides and a bunch of kids soulfully laughing, some things in mind got sorted out.