Why did Siddhant wander off on October 28? A week after the autistic teen got lost from Kandivali's Thakur village and came back five fear-filled days later, the question still torments his mother Jaya Sudhakar. More questions: where was he? What had he been doing? How was he eating? Her most terrifying questions, however, begin with the words, what if?
It's not like Siddhant, 19, is dim-witted, she said. He is the first autistic student to have cleared his secondary school exams in 2011 with 79%, and 67% in his higher secondary board exams in 2013, she said.
Jaya said, "He was not upset nor was anything amiss on that day, which might have made him go missing. He was out with me (in a grocery store) and I was speaking to an acquaintance, when he asked me whether we can go home. I asked him to wait for some time. (Then I noticed that) he had left my company, and he went missing from that day. He might have been trying to go home alone and might have lost his way."
She added, "After HSC exams he has been at home and is not doing anything. This might have caused him to be frustrated. We always keep our contact number and visiting card in his pocket. So, if he loses his way, someone can help him get home." Contact details and visiting cards that she had hoped would never be used.
City psychiatrists say though autistic children are bright, they lack the ability to adequately express themselves. In such cases, it is better for the parents to either inscribe telephone numbers or addresses on the children's clothes or have the child keep the parents' address cards.
dna spoke to Dr. Seema Hingorany, clinical psychologist, who said, "Generally social skills are impaired in autistic children. They cannot connect to people and have a problem with expressing themselves. There is no harm in keeping contact details with a child. This might be helpful for a good Samaritan to help the child who is lost."
Dr. Samir Dalwai, developmental paediatrician, said, "In addition to leaving their parents' name and telephone numbers in their pocket, an identity card should be hung around their neck, or as a band around their wrist, whatever the child allows."
Dalwai also made a general plea for more empathy towards children with autism. "People are not very comfortable in handling children with autism, due to communication and behavioural issues. So they need to have more empathy while dealing with children who are found lost," he said.
Meanwhile, Jaya can speculate about what Siddhant saw and went through, but Jaya can't ask him; his doctors have warned her not to cause any emotional upheavals in him.
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