Arjun

Arjun

Does he know? Doesn’t he know?

This question bothered me every time my friend Ripa would talk about her son. If we went to a superb musical with our children, she would say ‘Arjun found it too kiddish!’, explaining why they left midway.

Or when we met one our friend’s daughter in the mall, Ripa would say, ‘Arjun is going all google eyed at her, look at him’.

And i would.

But all i saw was a teenaged boy with the skeletal body of a four year old, under a large head, open drooling mouth and eyes that shone without a blink. You see Arjun had cerebral palsy and was on a wheel chair.

So did he know or didn’t he know anything?

The thought perturbed me immensely. Many a time Ripa would send me audios of her singing to Arjun, for Ripa had a marvelous voice, and she would twist the lyrics which she claimed made Arjun gurgle with laughter.

Like here is sample-

‘Kyun naye lag rahein hain ye dharti pavan, maine pooncha toh boli pavan, Pyaar hua Arjun se...’

Having heard these stories almost every week, since Ripa was a childhood friend, it started getting on my nerves. For Arjun never spoke and could not move any of his limbs, Ripa telling me once such cases are called quadriplegic.

‘Oh like Stephen Hawking’ i said.

‘You got it’, Ripa gushed.

Ripa bestowed him with an intelligence that he showed no sign of. He was on a diaper, did not even point a finger at any device. He went to a special school, where he was with other children his age. Though he didnt take tests like the others did, and kept moving up each class with the same group.

Out of kindness, i never once let it out, and always played gamely along. So what, Ripa gets happiness in assuming her child is intelligent even if he doesn’t show a sign of it. I loved Ripa and sometimes felt slightly angry at Arjun, the cause for Ripa’s dark circles and early signs of aging, her dashed career and her dead routine of school to home to therapy to sudden hospitalizations with Arjun’s delicate constituition, going awry. Twice he had choked on his own saliva. The whole thing made me feel sad, guilty and restless. He had not always been like this, in fact he was a cute cuddly toddler, but years of recurring seizures, immobilising medicines, had had their effects.

Anyway, today was not the time to think of all that. Ripa had called me urgently as Ripa’s husband had had a heart attack and he was in surgery. Ripa was outside the operation theater, and of all the days, her staff and support systems were on leave, so here i was with Arjun, baby-sitting him, in the waiting room.

He was dozing on his wheelchair, so i really had nothing to do.

After couple of hours, Ripa, came back, and clasped my hand. Arjun had gotten up, his large eyes fixed on his mother. But Ripa was looking at me, and with tears, as i missed a heartbeat- ‘He is ok, saved, saved!’ she whispered. 

I hugged my dear friend, heaving relief. And turned to look at Arjun, Arjun had two large tear drops at the brim of his eyes, as he watched both of us.

I realised that moment. Ripa was right.

He does know, he does know.