Autism

It was not "The Godfather" that ranked first in my list of Mario Puzo's books. Rather it was "The Last Don" – A wonderful novel about the life and the heir of the great Don "Don Domenico Clericuzio". It was not the hero, "Pippi De Lena" that attracted me so much to that book. It was the character of "Athena Aquitane", the lead heroine that made this book so special.

As would any powerful woman character be, Athena was also equally brave, courageous and victorious. The only difference was that this special character had a very special child. A child who had a syndrome named "Autism". So what is autism? – An abnormal absorption with the self; marked by communication disorders and short attention span and inability to treat others as people. OK, in more layman terms – Autism is a psychiatric condition, where the affected people know nothing – Happiness, Pain, Sorrow, Recognition, I repeat - they know nothing. Perhaps the stereotypical view of autism is portrayed by Dustin Hoffman in the movie “Rainman”. If you had watched that movie you will know the vacuous nature of these individuals.

The web hosts a whole lot of information about autism – “http://www.autism-society.org“, is one of the links where you can learn about this syndrome and the support group for the same. I was under the naive impression that this syndrome is extremely uncommon, until I happened to read a local weekly in my home town Chennai. I am not sure if it was "Anandha Vikatan" or "Kumudham" (the 2 lead weekly magazines in my mother tongue “Tamil”) – there was an article about "Autism" and the support group for parents and children alike in Chennai! It was then I realized how not uncommon any syndrome could be and I was also mentioning to my folks about "Athena Aquitane". Perhaps the sheer and the unavoidable truth that broke my innocence, made "The Last Don" as one of the books I love.

Many people feel that fiction is just a waste of precious time. However I totally tend to disagree with that common mistake, as it has its share of advantages – Improving the language, giving ideas, knowledge about many areas that we could perhaps never come across. Spreading awareness with the knowledge gained from any book is noteworthy.