My Son is Superman!

My son is Superman. He also happens to have Down’s Syndrome. And he is most definitely the biggest blessing in my entire life.

Three days after he was born, a timid-looking geneticist told me that your son will be very loving. He will like drawing and music. In my head popped this picture of darkness with a lonely child sitting in the corner and drawing while listening to sad elevator music. Our doctors need training badly in how to pass on such news. Telling a parent that your son will like to draw is like telling Sachin Tendulkar that you can go to your 200th test match but you can’t play. Devastating.

Anyways, fast forward 3.5 years, and life is quite the opposite of the picture I was made to imagine. Today, we have a boy so full of life, naughtiness and boundless energy. He has a twinkle in his eyes that makes me melt and intelligence that goes beyond what I could have ever imagined – Down’s Syndrome or not.

You want to feel love? You want to feel happy? Go and make friends with a child with Down’s. Do it now. Do not wait another second. Get to know them really well. They have this incredible ability to radiate pure love dripping with sweet, gooey goodness. You have not known love until you have known the love of a DS child. They will change you and you shall never be the same again. My wife worked tirelessly to ensure that Advait got his therapy and more. He was on a ferocious schedule packed with activities to help his brain grow and strengthen, coupled with special vitamins for a Down’s child. And every day he surprised us.

At just over a year old, we got him crawling up stairs. Soon he was going up four stories on his fours. This little pint of a boy. His tenacity and determination amazed us. His mind, sharp like a knife and his memory, incredible.

After a long heart surgery to close a 17 mm hole in his two year-old body, he bounced back in 24 hours. Incredible. He has had needles poked in him for more blood tests than some people go through in an entire lifetime. And he does not cry…..

When I take him to school I see his friends reach out to him and call out – Adu, Adu!

So yes, my son is superman! Not because he can do the above things with a smile on his face but because he proved the doctors and the experts wrong. He showed me that having a son with Down’s Syndrome was NOT the end of the world. It was in fact the beginning of my life.

Jesh Krishna Murthy is a father, husband and a tinkerer. The birth of his child with Down’s Syndrome changed his life. At first it made him an atheist followed by deep questioning of all things around him and the conditioning that so shapes and misguides us. This questioning led to deep searching, pain, and isolation which blossomed into gratitude.

Besides tinkering with life, Jesh is an artist and an animator and runs his own company in India. Along with that he is building a free learning resource for kids which he hopes can provide kids everywhere with access to great quality resources to learn. Only through a great childhood & upbringing can we build a better tomorrow where we all live in an equal world.

Links to the Jesh’s free learning resources:

http://mocomi.com
http://www.youtube.com/user/mocomikids

Jesh’s blog is available at http://happytude.in

The above excerpt is posted with the author’s kind permission.