It was a warm, sultry afternoon. Yet the enthusiasm of 5 mothers remained undeterred. They had decided on another day out from Club Good Hope. All of them planned and arrived at Iskcon mandir at Albert Road, Kolkata at 4.30pm sharp. Leaving their shoes at the counter, the children and moms splurged themselves on laddoos and ‘ Jibegojas’ at the mandir entrance before proceeding upstairs to the mandir arena.
There were bhakts engaged in singing Krishna leelas on the harmonium, some engaged to threading the flowers and creating fresh garlands for the Gods. The Krishna leela was kirtan to the children. These children are neuro diverse and all of them have autism with attention deficit and sensory processing issues. Yet the soothing kirtans seemed to emanate from the Gods adorned in their highest glory atop the raised platform. On one side was Lord Krishna and Radhe while the trio of Lord Jagannath, Balaram and Subhadra was on the other side. After participating in the kirtan by rocking and clapping and basking in the spirituality around them, the children seemed more closer to the Gods than the rest of the worshippers. Amazingly they were calm and composed as if the hand of God had reached out invisibly to bless them.
As the team emerged from the mandir premises, it seemed the Gods were reluctant to let go of these pure souls. With no prior planning the team proceeded to Birla Mandir in their cars to seek the darshan of Ma Durga, Mahadev, Lord Krishna, Lord Ganesha, Hanumanji and the avatars of Lord Vishnu. The white marbled structure of Birla Mandir was a reassurance to the team that where man fails, God excels. His ways are amazing! The outing ended with puchkas and ice cream with a promise to meet again soon. The Club Good Hope continues to pump adrenalin in these mothers and children as they vow to make their children societally acceptable and make the children happy and smiling.
It was a awareness initiative too. One security gaurded misunderstood srimming of a child with Autism and asked a parent to leave. Child actually was excited because he felt happy to hear kirtan.
We notified the authority, emailed them. Response was great and they welcomed us. We went and this time we got cooperation. Society does it’s best to be inclusive, efforts should be from us parents also.
