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“I love to sing along to nursery rhymes. I dance to them while sitting down”

She lost one mother but found three! Seven-year-old Shaziya Hameed, who has Cerebral Palsy (CP) and vision problems, was a toddler when her mother had a heart failure and her father promptly abandoned her. But that is when three of her unmarried aunts swooped in to claim her as their own.
 
Shabana Bibi gave birth to Shaziya on 12 April 2018 at the GB Pant government hospital in Port Blair, South Andaman. After being diagnosed with CP she began regular therapy and treatment, from the age of six months, at the Composite Regional Centre (CRC) in Brookshabad. Shabana had had two cardiac attacks previously but the third one, which occurred during the Covid pandemic, proved fatal. Shaziya was just one-and-a-half years old.
 
Shabana’s husband (we did not bother to ask his name) immediately left home, never to return. Imagine what would have happened to the little one in most other circumstances – but not this one. Shabana was the youngest of seven sisters, four of whom are married. The other three – Halima Bibi (68), Jaygun Bibi (56) and Fatima Bibi – took charge. [Fatima was not home when Vicky did the photo-shoot.] The extended family includes Shabana’s choti nani (mother’s younger sister), Parveen Begum (53). Women power held Shaziya aloft.
 
The aunts have retired from work: Halima, whom we spoke to, used to teach home science in a school, Jaygun worked in an anganwadi (government-run crèche) and Fatima was a bank employee. “We have dedicated our lives to looking after our niece,” said Halima. The ‘looking after’ involves a great deal of attentive nurture, for Shaziya’s CP seriously affected her speech and movement, and besides, her eyes are impaired. “She has difficulty swallowing,” said Halima. “She can only eat thin, gruel-like food such as khichdi.”
 
Shaziya studies in the mainstream Delanipur School in Port Blair in Class 1 and has been promoted to Class 2, although her attendance is irregular because of medical treatments that crop up. She is a joyful child who enjoys being around other children and her family often brings neighbours’ kids home to play with her, as doctors have advised them to keep her socially engaged. “She likes to draw although she finds it difficult to handle the pencil,” said Halima. “She loves to sing along with nursery rhymes; her favourite is ‘Ek mota haathi jhoom ke chale’ and she dances to it while sitting!” This Hindi rhyme, ‘One fat elephant swayed joyously and walked’, teaches kids to count; it begins with one elephant and progresses to two, and so on till five. Apparently Shaziya delights in singing ‘chaar (four) hathi’ the most – could it be because she imagines four of them, she and her aunt-mothers?
 
Abid, the physiotherapist at the Brookshabad CRC, tells us Shaziya has been regularly going for physiotherapy there as well as other CRCs in the area although fever and infection has prevented her from doing so for the past month and a half. “She has problems with balance and has overall development delays,” said Abid, “although she is showing marked progress. Her strength has improved and she is able to sit up and perform some tasks on her own.” At home, her aunts continue her physio regimen, helping her with exercises using the CP walker, the gym-ball and so on.
 
When we interviewed Halima, she told us Fatima and Jaygun had taken Shaziya to doctors in Chennai. “They came here and took measurements of her leg,” Halima told us. “Now she will have special shoes so she can stand and eventually be able to walk.” Shaziya’s cousin, Dr Ruksaar, who is a general practitioner in Chennai, told us she is being fitted with a knee-ankle-foot orthosis (KAFO), a custom-made assistive device (for which measurements are necessary). It is a leg brace that extends from thigh downwards, supports the knee and enables ankle movement.
 
Shaziya’s aunts are full of hope for the future of their plucky, lively child – yes, their own child, whom they have taken to their hearts.