Sharing my interview responses for Padma aunty's blog
1. How old are you? What are you studying?
I turned 17 this year though feel lot older. Just perhaps my thoughts. I would like to find great happiness through the nuanced balance between my still teenage thoughts and the older thinking.
Have completed my grade 9 and plan to keep on the attempt right in until I finish my grade 10.
2. Would you like to share a few details of your schooling, how you learned to adapt to the environment and friends, etc.
Yes. Initially school was only to have mechanisms to learn new things. I used to play a lot. Having many good teachers really helped me very much. They kindly treated me like my classmates. Yes. gave lot of encouragement of course really giving me more confidence. It quite felt overwhelming during games and appeared impossible many a time to manage lunch break too. Positively managed only because my teachers and classmates helped me. Great amount of socialisation is included in both situations. It can fester persisting anxiety and sensory overload has truly dreadful consequences. Proving I understand lot more than it appeared gave me the freedom to not be helpless most often totally helping in adapting to situations in school. Special mention to my classmates and teachers for all the special support for my schooling experience.
3. Please share a few details about your sensory world. What helps you to calm down and relax?
Mostly progress from very happy state going on to becoming lost minutes later.
Keep moving between diving into the water cold and the water full hot. Leaves me totally in helpless position. Lot of sensory experiences are painful.
Music only offers relaxation.
4. What is your all-time favourite and current favourite song and movie/book? Please share a poem you wrote recently.
All-time favourite song
Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen
Current favourite songs
Higher power by Coldplay
Faded by Alan Walker
Waiting for Love by Avicii
Paradise by Coldplay
All-time favourite book
The Boy at the Back of the Class by Onjali Q. Rauf
Current favourite book
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time by Mark Haddon
Book reading presently
The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
5. Please share a few details about your first annual day participation in school. What did you perform? How did you feel?
That was perhaps one of my happiest experiences in school. I took part in the Japanese lantern dance and had to go for practice daily to learn to time my steps perfectly together both with the other dancers and the music. Of course, it was panicky to have to do all this with sensorial overload that is part of such school programs. Much of this was overcome with singular effort from my teachers. The actual program really had me experience too much of flood of sensations. Observing my dance part later felt very fascinated. Like tango the lovely movements positively looked like flowing river. Possibly my best dance performance to this day. Pleasing effort.
6. Please tell us about your passion for music. What instrument do you play? When did you start learning to play?
Music is one of the things in life that makes it all worthwhile. Better friend one may never have. Time loses importance when music becomes bigger. I am happy listening to music night and day.
7. Please share a few details about the Spellibrity contest.
Important milestone that helped me to really gather the confidence to engage with the world on my terms. You are treated much more respectfully.
I liked the way they personified us into the different categories. I particularly liked my humanitarian label. Because it tells people absolute truth about me.
8. Do you remember the first word/sentence you communicated by typing? How did it feel?
Yes
Only my name.
It felt great, touched my lonely being, completely liberating mechanism.
9. Please share a few details about how your learning to communicate progressed and what/who helped the most?
Priya miss opened important doors for me. She freed me from the prison I was trapped in - a silent totally lonely place.
10. You were close to your grandparents; how did you feel and cope with their loss...
There happened to not be anybody else that accepted my differences as my grandparents. There clearly was an unspoken connection with them. Of course I felt very sad to lose them. Many times, miss them. In my memories they stay with me always.
11. Would you like to share your future plans with us?
In the future my wish is to probably both learn and dance to music that is found only in math. My every effort to specifically be a voice for other non-speaking autistics always.
1 12. Would you like to share details about your short story on inclusion.
The story was about standing up to bullying. Have not been bullied but know very well how difficult and scary to be bullied can feel.
1 13. How was the experience of writing for the book - Talking Fingers?
The full experience felt great mainly because of the opportunity to collaborate with my clan of non-speaking autistics from my country. People got to hear us. That gave me the motivation to push the body the maximum.
