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niyati

niyati
mehra , punjab

Niyati Mehra (25) sits on a wooden two-seater sofa with an off-white wall behind it. The sofa has coffee-brown furnishing with back cushions covered in a light beige material that resembles an animal’s shaggy fur. Her hair is backcombed without a parting and tied at the back. She wears chocolate brown pants and a white boat-neck top with half sleeves. The top is printed across the chest with a design of roses – two dark pink, one light pink and one light yellow – and green leaves. Printed over this design are two words, one below the other, in large black capitals: STAY FELINE. She is looking down at a glass-topped table in front of her. On the table, a row of 11 playing cards has been arranged, face up. In her right hand she holds a playing card with a red and white design on the back and she is putting it between her lips as if nibbling it. Her left hand holds a pack of cards.
Niyati stands in the living room in front of a flat-screen TV with her arms raised horizontally so that her body forms a T. She wears chocolate brown trousers and a sky-blue T-shirt printed on the front with five white daisies with yellow centres. The TV screen shows the back of a person in a red sleeveless T-shirt and blue track pants also raising their arms in a similar pose. The TV is placed on a teakwood piece of furniture with a drawer and four compartments. The room has pale grey walls and pale grey marble flooring.
Niyati, wearing her sky-blue T-shirt and brown pants, stands on the green lawn of a garden. She is watering plants with a cream plastic hosepipe that she grips with both hands. The plant she is watering is a rosy periwinkle, with pale pink five-petalled flowers and oval green leaves.
Niyati stands in front of an L-shaped black granite platform in a kitchen with white wall tiles. She wears a turquoise blue kurta covered with a pattern of white dotted lines in geometrical and floral shapes. There is a white mixer-grinder on the platform. It has a transparent plastic jar filled to about one-eighth with milk. There is very little coffee powder left in the glass bottle which she holds in her right hand. Her left hand, which holds a teaspoon of coffee powder, is poised above the jar.
Niyati and her family sit chatting in the living room. From left to right: brother Dhivit Mehra (13), mother Aarti Mehra (48), and Niyati seated on a large wooden sofa with brown and white upholstery, and father Rishi Mehra (51) on a single sofa upholstered in turquoise blue. A large painting hangs on the cream wall behind them. The painting, with a chocolate brown frame, is rendered in mustard, red and blue hues and shows stylised figures playing a game of dice. Dhivit wears light green shorts and a white T-shirt with a multi-coloured design on the front. Niyati wears her white top printed with roses and brown pants. Aarti wears specs with brown frames and has shoulder-length wavy hair that is left loose. She is dressed in a white salwar and a white round-necked three-fourth-sleeved kurta with small orange dots across the body and orange sleeves. Rishi wears specs with transparent rims, a sapphire-blue knitted shirt with collar, and blue jeans. Rishi is smiling and speaking to the others who are looking at him with smiles on their faces.
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“I start dancing when my granny and I listen to music. By the way, I love shelling peas”

How crucial it is to train teachers to handle hyperactive children! Aarti Mehra (48) from Amritsar, herself a former teacher, and her businessman husband Rishi Mehra (51) became painfully aware of this truth two decades ago when hunting for the right school for their firstborn, Niyati, who was diagnosed with autism.
 
DAV Public School, where they initially admitted her, did have special education teachers but when the school management changed hands, the principal felt that special education was an unnecessary financial burden. Regular teachers could not cope with Niyati’s special needs and they began to complain that she kept running out of class. Her parents started combing Amritsar for suitable schools but found that none had special educators.
 
Aarti then got Niyati admitted in the mainstream school where she was a teacher. Here, a senior teacher who was a disciplinarian would restrain the restless child by tying her hands to the chair! Often, when Aarti was teaching her class, she could hear Niyati screaming. After taking her out of this school the Mehras checked out a new one that offered to cater to Niyati’s needs, but they soon found out that the school had admitted her just to increase their admissions, and were least interested in attending to her.
 
Everyone must have heaved a huge sigh of relief when Spring Dale employed a skilled special educator, Prerna Khanna (whom we mentioned in our recent story on Manas Wadhwa). She taught in the school’s junior wing, Spring Blossoms, and Niyati flourished under her tutelage so much so that she cleared her 10th standard exams.
 
Niyati is now 25 years old. Her mother recalls the day she was born, and how she developed high fever that was treated with antibiotics and which kept her in the hospital nursery for 15 days. As an infant, her lips would tremble and Aarti put it down to the effect of the strong meds. Then, they noticed that her developmental milestones were delayed. Her parents took her to the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research in Chandigarh where tests showed that she was on the autism spectrum. The signs were evident when she started speaking: she did not make eye contact, was repetitive in her communication, and could not hold a conversation. At age nine, she was also diagnosed with mild mental retardation.
 
Niyati’s life took an upward turn when she started attending a vocational centre run by the Punjab centre of the national-award-winning NGO Saksham Trust. She travels in the school van and is happy among her circle of friends who also teach her little tricks like how to dress up well and how to use the features of the smartphone. At Saksham, she learns basic life skills such as cooking and taking care of personal hygiene.
 
Aarti narrated how she and Rishi had decided not to have another kid so that they could focus on bringing up Niyati. But then she got pregnant again after several years, and now Dhivit (13) and Niyati share a strong sibling bond. Their grandmother Uma Mehra played a major role in caring for Niyati until recently when she developed Alzheimer's. Even today, Niyati and her granny spend long hours together listening to music which Niyati loves to dance to. Her repetitive behaviour finds a use in the kitchen; she can shell six to seven kilos of peas at a stretch!
 
Aarti’s brother recently invited her to visit him in Australia. At first she was apprehensive about making this solo trip – who would look after Niyati? But then her family members reassured her that they would take charge, and she was able to enjoy a well-deserved break.
 
Niyati loves dressing up, eating out with the family, going on ice-cream dates with her dad, and watching TV. Despite her disability she makes the most of her life.

Photos:

Vicky Roy

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