Book Review - The Sound of a Miracle.

Book Review.

"The Sound of Miracle" is an autobiographical story that's indeed miraculous. It's a story of a mother whose first born gets detected with leukemia and the second one with autism. Her fight with circumstance and with determination to give children a life with dignity is an inspiration to every parent. The endless rounds to one hospital for blood transfusion and another to deal with autism is untiring, you always wonder how a mother can get so much strength and fight with the system and with herself to understand and find ways for her children to be happy. In the 1970s the medical science did not have the kind of advancement and understanding of Leukemia (even to this day it is not). When going gets tough it becomes more complicated and tougher.. I have seen in many cases when parents are struggling to deal with an ailing child one parent, most often the father, gives away and moves out instead of helping deal with the situation. The same happens with Annabel Stelhi, the author, and her husband and the father of two angels moves out and eventually they get divorced. It also amazes me that under such situations how children grow up and behave so maturely. Dotsie, the elder girl who is diagnosed with leukemia at the age of four takes up some responsibilities at home and comforts her mother while dealing with her own illness that she doesn't understand much about. After four years of treatment of terminal disease she never shows a sign of pain to bother her mother and peacefully goes away soon after celebrating her 8th birthday in the hospital ward with her suffering friends where she saw some other children her age passing away.

 Just a few months before Dotsie's death god shows some kindness and Anna is introduced to a kind person who she later marries her. He is also a divorcee having three children but they don't live with the protagonist. He shares her worries and genuinely loves her. As luck would have it Peter, the new husband, gets a job in Geneva and the three of them move to Switzerland where they meet a doctor who refers Georgina, the child who is autistic and gone through a lot of different treatment without much progress, although she is high functioning, to an audiologist. 

That was a game changer.. that doctor is a researcher and had developed a unique audio treatment with which he had treated some autistic children successfully. Autism as we understand is not a disease but a condition that never goes away. They are neurodiverent with certain characteristics. Only some training makes children overcome some of the disabilities and make them independent to some extent, that also varies from children to children and that's why autism is a spectrum. From high functioning on one end to the low functioning on the other where often you need constant support. Dr Guy Berard, the audiologist administered his audiology treatment and the results were amazing. In just 10 weeks it changed Georgie's life. He trained her to listen to certain frequencies and filtered out some others that used to bother her. No one believed the improvements in Georgie and some people started questioning if she was autistic in the first place. Well to cut the story short, Georgies does well at schools when the family moves back to the US and then graduates from a university with flying colours. She becomes a topic of research herself but only after she has graduated  and that's when Annabel writes this autobiography and establishes a non profit Gerogiana Institute to help people who are neurodivergent.

It's the whole system that is responsible for such miraculous healing but you need to be lucky to have the right sequence and circumstances when the right things happen by meeting the right people and in this case doctors. Georgiana and Annabel are inspiring examples who show how to WIN life. Salute to them. 

June 2025.

Book Courtesy "Action For Autism, National Centre for Autism" Library.

 Book Review.

Somebody Somewhere by Donna Williams is an autobiographical sequel to her first autobiographical book Nobody Nowhere. Donna an autistic child who had difficulty growing up had described her childhood and growing up years in the first book.

In Somebody Somewhere she continues her journey after she establishes herself as an author and returns to her home country Australia to live independently. Her struggle with life continues due to autism, she describes her determination and helping others like her in this book. Her relationship with her sympathetic landlord's family and her psychologist, her reaching out to people to speak about her book for promotion and her interaction with a publishing agent towards her second book.

It's amazing how she comes as not only a winner after autism captures her at every stage of life but she also helps a few others who she finds similarly affected with ASD and makes them stronger.

At one stage during her day long stopover in Srilanka on the way from Australia to the UK she had to struggle to shut up the cab driver who behaved in a typical manner as we all experience leachers who try to attract "foreign tourists".. Their conversation goes like:

"you married? Do you have a boyfriend? Do you like Srilanka? Do you like Srilanka men? Have you ever had a boyfriend? Are you afraid of AIDS? Would you like to get married? Would you like to get married to me? The taxi driver went on and on as I answered each question honestly. It wasn't until he got to the last question and he explained his intentions that I understood what was happening. I thought it was a sort of factual quiz, a culture study on his behalf, or that maybe he was into sociology or something."

Now such conversation would make any neurotypical woman nervous, sweating and fearful but Donna braves the situation and firmly asks the driver to return to the hotel.

It's a story worth reading and appreciating her bravery.

May' 2025

#donnawilliams #SomebodySomewhere #autism #ASD

 April 03, 2025

Book Review.

Nobody Nowhere by Donna Williams.

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Seldom you come across a subject that completely changes the way you approach the world. Autism is one that has little awareness in the world, although it has gained a substantial ground over the last four decades when even people from the psychology and psychiatry profession hardly showed any interest in studying and helping those affected.

Seldom you come across a book that completely captivates you takes over your imagination and changes your perception of the world, forever. Donna Williams autobiography (written in two parts) Nobody Nowhere is one such book I discovered. Donna is autistic and born in the era when almost no one knew of this neuro divergence.

She was taken for born-mad and was punished severely by many first of all her mother. She struggled as a child and as she grew older.. left home as a teenager, survived on some people's kindness, became homeless, got exploited sexually and otherwise until she reached her twenties. The bright and intelligent girl in her could not remain in isolation and she overcame her autism issues by training herself and became a teacher and a counsellor, a writer, artist, singer- song writer, a sculptor and much more.

The book changes our perception of the condition. It's rare or almost absent that an autistic person discovers her/his condition and trains herself to overcome the hurdles and shares her experience to encourage neurodivergent people and their family and friends to live more meaningful life.

It's a must read for every one who are interested in understanding human diversity.

April 01, 2025
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Some excerpts from the book:

I had begun to feel something was missing but I did not know what it was. I had a doll and wanted very much to cut it open to see if it had any feeling inside. I took a knife and tried to pry it open but became afraid of the consequences of breaking the doll and simply went on wondering for the next few years.
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I remember, when I was about seven, how I got a slap in the face after walking into someone 's house and announcing, " it's very dirty on here", and following it up by enthusiastically informing the host that he " only had one arm.". This was fairly typical of me, and I came to earn myself a reputation as rude, hurtful and outspoken. Later this same quality sometimes came to earn me respect as someone who was "never afraid to say what she thinks."
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I believe that all thoughts begin with feelings. such children have feelings, but it has developed in isolation and can't be verbalised in the usual way, and most people cannot hear with anything other than their ears.
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TS Eliot wrote " in my beginning is my end" and in

my end is my beginning ". perhaps in some strange way I started at the end and tried to work my way back.
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Through his paintings, Vincent van Gogh tried to teach people to look beyond the surface image of things and to see the true beauty in the individuality of things so often dismissed as ugly.
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Above all I would encourage those who have strived to help people like myself that their efforts are not useless. Responding in an indirect or detached manner is not synonymous with indifference.
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Jhula Pul (suspension bridge) in Chanfi village, off bhimtal-padampuri road, Uttarakhand.

March 29, 2014

Hidden from the urban areas and tourists in south gola range between bhimtal and padampuri is a small village called Chanfi. 

As you reach through a kachcha pabble road about a kilometre inside from the metal road, you reach a small stream called gaula river and there is no road beyond so even an off roader has to stop there. Right there you see an old suspension bridge – ‘Jhula Pul’. The bridge was erected in 1910, more than 100 years ago and is still in pristine condition. Though the village across was inhibited in 1930s, there is no real explanation for this bridge to be commissioned in 1910s.

I went there to look for birds when someone mentioned this as a birding place. Upon enquiry some locals said they have no knowledge of a birding spot but there is a scenic place that attracts curious tourists, called Paritaal that also has a lake and a waterfall.

It was a total wilderness and after walking nearly a kilometre when I felt that without a proper direction there was no point going further and since it was a late afternoon, I decided to abandon my exploration and return. 

The stream or the gaula river was very thin and mostly stone bed, but it was a wonderful gateaway where one can sit and listen to the flowing water, some chirping birds and sound of silence with hills on the two sides. 

Enjoy the pictures till you plan to visit this place. here is a link of the map that will take you there.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/SGpRQgrAXKcntU379

UNCLUTTER – by Winnie D Pagora. A book review

 

"Suddenly, I felt a hand graze my thi— my upper leg. I froze, startled at the unwanted touch. As the principal droned on, Nicholas’s hand continued to stroke my leg, traveling up toward—“Hands off, you sick pervert!” I screamed, slamming my elbow into his face as hard as I could. I jumped to my feet. There was pin-drop silence in the room as everyone in the audience and onstage looked at me, shell-shocked."

This is from the opening chapter of the novel "Unclutter" by Winnie D Pagora, a new literary sensation in the town. This is her debut novel and I never heard/read anything that she scribbled before this one. You are always doubtful about new writers about whom you have no references/reviews available,

From the moment I picked this up to read, barely I could put the book down. It's so racy (literally as well as if there is a word that describes as " one that moves with the speed, races ahead"). I am a slow reader and normally a book of this size (357 pages) will take nearly 10 days for me to finish but I completed this in just 4 days or so.

Stories meant for and of young adults like Mills & Boon seldom interest me, initially one feels that this book is similar, but as you go along you find that this is not just a story about late school early University going students’ everyday activities and infatuations but it's a story of the protagonist Tina aka Tia aka Tiara who is bold, strong, studious, multi Tasker, intelligent, enterprising, sports person and has the guts to take on her rich and influential perpetrator/s who make her life miserable with the help of his anti-social friends and that of his family influences in the high places.

Tina is bright but timid due to an early life episode that curtailed her childhood activities. The story moves further and the teenager gets into some good company of friends and leaves behind some who turn bad. At that age and with such incidences early in life she is apprehensive about just about anyone and everything. However, how she overcomes those difficulties and turns into a normal life loving teenager who has a great set of loving friends and a boyfriend, which is the crux of the novel. The book also has a social message for everyone especially the teenagers (girls) as to how to guard yourself from hawks who are all around you.. in the family and in the society. In life you are surrounded by different types of people .. your immediate family is always there to protect you and to encourage you to be a fighter against some really bad elements and many others who are your genuine and helpful friends, it takes time for a teenager to identify and differentiate them but if you are courageous (others will help you only when you help yourself, so it's very important that you be brave) everything falls in place and life becomes beautiful and UNCLUTTERED.

The setting of the novel is in the West and detailed and pointed observations give you the impression that the writer has lived all her life over there, a remarkable skill. One thing that irritated me is the description of a character who is often referred at they/them. I know it's a new gender-neutral addressing system but nevertheless, wish the writer has kept the old style and not enforce this "new and bold" gender choice on the generation prior to millennials.

Congratulations Winnie, you made a great beginning in this literary world and we the readers look forward to many more gems, ahead.

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Pradeep Joshi (pradepkjoshi@gmail.com)

Delhi, India

August 23, 2023

Movie review - GHOOMER.

There have been several hindi movies with sports as main theme over the last half a century but the names that have a big recall are the ones made over the last two decades are Lagaan (2001), Chak De India (2007) and Bhaag Milkha Bhaag (2013). These movies centred around sports and also had an appealing star cast and great music. They also made good commercial success in the competitive Bollywood Industry. Some more names come to my mind that have done reasonably well on all these accounts like Dangal, Ferrari ki sawaari, Iqbal, Mithu.. 

Cricket is the most popular game of the country along its length and breadth and this is no surprise that most films on sports are on cricket. 

Ghoomer that is just released has both the Bachchans (Abhishek and Amitabh) also seen in the cast is Shabana Azmi but in the lead role is Saiyami Kher, a relatively new face. R Balki is also a known name in Direction. What this team has given is a unique story that has never been seen before.. quite an imaginative story of the struggle of a rising star who has some wonderful work on the screen. 

I got to know of the movie when I saw Nyla Masood in the cast. She is on the screen in quite a few movies over the last decade and has made an equally impacting name for herself off the screen through wardrobe designs over the last couple of decades. This movie had a small but important role for her and needless to say she does more than justice to her role. Her role in the movie Lift Boy is unforgettable.

I didn't collect any information about the movie and had no clue what it is about.. I wanted it to be a total surprise.. the name Goomer suggested it as some kind of a dance drama.. and surprised I was.. wow!! Most Hindi movies succeed with songs and music.. this one has good background music but I don't recollect any song/s and you don't miss that.

I don't want to spoil your surprise so I advise that you see the movie in the theatre or later when it comes on any OTT platform....sooner the better.. Let me assure you that you will never be disappointed through the movie either before or after the intermission.

I wish and hope this movie, released just a day before, a great success as it has a great appeal similar to Lagaan or Chak De..

Good Luck.. GHOOMER.

Delhi/August 20, 2023

Clips: Captured from the screen for the review. 

Pic: From the film's media coverage.

Book Review - Reunion.

Never read such a touching story about the Jews in Germany of the late thirties of the last century in such a short novella, almost a long story.

Reunion is a brilliant tale centred around two school going friends one a commoner Jew and another Christian from a royal family that believed that Fuhrer is their saviour not knowing that his ambitions will destroy the world.

At one point the author quotes someone "death undermines our confidence in life by showing that in the end everything is equally futile before the final darkness".. I love this quote that is the most impacting sentence in this 92 page story that one can read in about 3 hours.

Delhi/August 16, 2023