When my mother-in-law died a few months ago at the age of 100, she left a huge gap in our lives. She had lived with us for 18 years and she was, to the very end, a vital part of 

I’m used to amazing stories, near-miracles and unlikely transformations. When you work with children with special needs, they’re commonplace, the stuff of everyday. Take a child everybody else has given up on, help him locate his strength, give him the 

My daughter Moy Moy doesn’t speak at all. She is 27 years old, has quadriplegia and is completely non-verbal. But that doesn’t mean she doesn’t communicate. This morning I woke at 5 am because Moy was making sounds. They were 

Whenever anything would go wrong in the early days of our foundation for children with special needs, Paula (our volunteer teacher-trainer, life-coach and best friend) would say, “Never mind! Worse things happen at sea.” Difficult times require clarity of thought, 

I was one of those lucky teenagers who had no real problem with acne. I sailed through adolescence with only two or three pimples – so few I can’t even remember them. I do remember, however, friends for whom those 

A few months ago, I missed my train from Delhi to Dehradun. I had to get back home that afternoon and there was no way I was willing to pay for either a flight or a taxi. So I worked 

Rohit, 10 years old, writes about his best friend: Sunil is my best friend. We have known each other since we were small boys and we have done many things together – we learned to ride our bicycles at the 

Shilpi is an absolutely impossible child. If she doesn’t like the food she is served, she hurls it against the wall. Bath time is a daily screaming match, and no one is allowed to brush her teeth. To avoid tantrums 

I am the director of an organisation for children with disabilities and their families in Dehradun. Recently, one of our major funders asked us to conduct what they call a “Family Burden Survey.” They wanted to get a sense of 

Recently, I took my daughter to an ENT specialist because she has developed periodic breathing, holding her breath for up to 40 seconds and then suddenly exhaling. She does it for most of the night, and it disturbs her sleep. 

Every parent remembers (in a haze, maybe, but we do remember) the early days when the first baby had just arrived. The broken sleep. The chaos. The complete inability to plan anything further away than the afternoon. Baby number two 

I am reading Far From The Tree by Andrew Solomon, and it is a slow, painful process that leaves me alternately breathless and buoyant. I feel as if I have been put through a threshing machine at one moment, sent 

As advocates for children with special needs, one of the things we keep discovering is how insightful and observant children are about each other, how much they notice and how much they connect. On my frequent walks with Moy Moy, 

The latest buzzword in the world of special needs is Self-Advocacy, the idea that young adults with cognitive impairments (like Autism, Down Syndrome or other intellectual disabilities) can and should speak for themselves. I’ve heard self-advocates speak in conferences to 

Grown-ups don’t know how to talk to kids. What are you saying? you’re wondering. We talk to kids all the time. It’s so easy! Right? We ask the child standing in front of us in the line, “What’s your name?” 

“Children First” is a truism, one of those phrases we all believe and think we actually practice. Coupled with women — as in “Women and Children First” — it was famously not practiced as the Titanic sank and upperclass men 

School admission time rolls around faster every year. For some reason, I am besieged each March and April with requests for help from parents desperate to get their children into School X, Y or Z. I am not influential, and 

My father died this month. He was 93 and he had lived a long and wonderful life. My mother passed away in 2008, and he was anxious to be reunited with her. More important, perhaps, his seven children were all