An evening with Autism

Time of India

4 days ago

Recipient of the Life Time Achievement Award from the Office of the President of the United States, the Charaka and Sushruta Award from The Associations of Indians in America, and the Castle Conolly Top Doctor's Award, Dr Shuvendu Sen is the Vice Chair, Research and Faculty at Jersey Shore University Medical Center, Hackensack Meridian Health. For his contributions in health care, Dr. Sen has been acknowledged by the United Nations, The New York State Senate and the American College of Physicians. A New York times published author, Dr. Sen is a prolific writer of both fiction and nonfiction works. Of science and arts. Thrice nominated for the United States Pushcart Literary Award, Dr. Sen has also authored, The Fight Against Alzheimer's (Rupa Publications, 2024), A Doctor's Diary, reflections on health, healing, and hope (Times Group Books, 2014) and the Nautilus Award Winner Why Buddha Never Had Alzheimer's (HCI/Simon & Schuster, 2017) that has been translated into French, Italian and other languages and made into a United Nations recognized documentary produced by Governor's House, Maharashtra. LESS ... MORE
It's hard to personify a disease. But for a physician in active patient care for nearly four decades, I have, in the ensuing years, felt the necessity to dissolve the distance between the suffering and the sufferer. In a world obsessed with terminologies, where words like normal, abnormal, typical, atypical chase each like Tom and Jerry, I have learned to view each one of them as similar, but with a difference. An exclusiveness that is both near and beyond.
Autism is one such spectrum of humanity. As someone who has been connected with it both professionally and personally, I look up to these souls as at once incredibly brave, resilient, and yes, wise. Wise enough to know the difference, resilient enough to meet the challenges and brave enough to take the bold, undaunted steps. What comes out is an individual who is comfortable with the uncomfortable, oblivious to being a minority, and delighted to take the road 'less travelled by'.
I am wary of watching diseases in celluloid. I fear such adoptions will dramatize sufferings, draw the wrong attention and unfairly expose vulnerabilities. And in the process the essence of courage and compassion will be lost. Quite like a translated work. I was sensitive, thus, when I walked into a cinema hall one balmy New York evening to watch Anupam Kher's Tanvi The Great. I was afraid that my critical mind would revolt at any deviation from reality. For it has happened in the past. Artists have reveled in the art of suffering, rejoiced at their talent in portraying those in despair and prided in their skill to usher sighs and tears.
But Tanvi The Great surprised me…pleasantly. It comforted me. Assured me that in the hands of an artist this spectrum is as safe as it is with a doctor. I am not a movie reviewer. Neither do I sit on the jury. Yet, as my expressions oscillated from the suppressed to the overflowing, I could not but admire a wondrous display of human emotions dwelling on such sensitive nuances with subtlety and restraint. A convincing work of human art where the opposite of normal was not abnormal, where challenge was not akin to struggle, where difference was not an anomaly…
A movie on a human disorder can only become a message when the disorder itself is respected. And it is this very respect given to a girl with a difference that signaled the exotic and unique nature of this film. For a spectrum as incredibly sensitive as autism, only an incredibly sensitive artist can generate such a powerful portrayal. A canvas where disability could seamlessly surpass perfection.
I teach my medical students that our primordial organs: our eyes, ears, and hands around the shoulder, are still the primary instruments of patient care. Anupam Kher's Tanvi The Great embraced all of these.
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Views expressed above are the author's own.