A Mother's 'Special Effect' on Mentally Disabled Kids

Someone once said, a good mother is worth hundreds of school teachers. Rearing a child is an endeavour which needs immense patience and love. And who else is better at it than a mother? But even most mothers, when they find out that their child is not among the 'normal' ones, lose heart and get depressed. They tend to think that God has punished them with a mentally or physically challenged child and that it is now their fate to suffer. Most parents do not stop to think that though their child is not 'normal,' he or she may be 'special', with abilities different than the normal ones. It is rather refreshing to find a mother who thinks that her child is indeed 'special' and discovers love through that 'special' child.

Anuradha Nandakumar, wife of city-based builder M.S. Nandakumar, has two children — son Nishanth and daughter Nimisha. Being the mother of a mentally challenged son, she decided to work for the empowerment of such children, teach them innovatively, train them in vocational courses and get them economically independent to an extent by helping them get jobs.
In order to support the parents of such special children, Anuradha founded the Mysore District Parents' Association for Empowering Developmentally Disabled (MDPAEDD) in the city, which works from the Namana Kala Mantapa building on 2nd Cross, Krishnamurthypuram. With a view to create interest about arts in the mentally challenged, this down-to-earth achiever also provides Namana Kala Mantapa, which she owns, without any rent to the organisations helping mentally challenged to conduct various programmes including drama, singing and yoga.
Anuradha's achievements do not stop here. She has also served as the Past President of Spoorthi, the Ladies Wing of Builders' Association of India (BAI), Mysore Centre.
When I caught up with Anuradha, she spoke about her experience of raising a special child and her aspirations towards rehabilitating the children and supporting their parents. Excerpts:
Shwetha: What was your experience as the mother of a mentally challenged child?
Anuradha Nandakumar: When I came to know that my son was mentally challenged, I was initially depressed, but only for some time. Then I thought spending my life in depression was of no use and I had to look after my child and bring out his talents in a positive way. I took him to Chetana Trust for Mentally Disabled. There we taught the children letters, words and colour concepts. They were taught their letters and words musically, sounds of animals and other basic syllabus, mainly through phonetics. A new syllabus was created and circulated among all mothers. It was such fun, innovating new things for the kids to do, creating new ideas... all parents were together and it mattered a lot. What was the next step to be taken towards teaching them was always on our minds. We always had something different to do because they were not run-of-the-mill children. They don't do most activities that normal kids do. So we had to keep inventing new concepts and that's what kept us going.
Shwetha: Where did your son study?
Anuradha: Chetana Trust guided us in all our steps. He studied pre-nursery, LKG and UKG in play home and then at Mahabodhi School. However, after 4th standard, we stopped taking him to school because we felt academic pursuit in normal lines was not suited for him. So he started going only to Chetana. Mathematical concepts were introduced there along with time concept. Even today he is so perfectly punctual that none of us has that kind of discipline. Our relatives and friends call him the 'Time keeper to the nation' like the famous HMT slogan. Today, all children of the parents who were the first members of MDPAEDD are grown up. They are aged 26, 30, 32 years etc., but they are very much together.
Shwetha: Is there any incident that saddened you most?
Anuradha: I will tell you one incident that happened when my son was young. I used to take him to school in bus everyday. One day, playful that he was, he refused to get down the bus at our stop as he fell in love with bus travel. I was coaxing him to get down when the bus conductor started shouting, "Why do you have to bring 'such' children in bus to trouble us?" Everybody in the bus started staring at us. That day, the conductor's behaviour saddened me. Then my husband decided that he would buy me a scooter to take our son to school.
Shwetha: How does your daughter Nimisha cope up with her 'special' brother?
Anuradha: She is so co-operative and mature for her age. All the siblings of such kids are mature. They learn the societal pulses and they feel it quickly. She was so matured that even in childhood, the childishness was absent. Even when we elders lose patience, she corrects us and comes to her brother's rescue saying "Mama, don't scold him like that." The siblings of such kids have that special kind of affection. My daughter is so motherly with her sibling that she started taking care of her parents too along with her sibling. We feel so proud of them. It's all because of that 'special' effect...
Shwetha: Most organisations that work for the cause of mentally challenged, just teach them but don't think about rehabilitating them by providing jobs. You have successfully taken up the rehabilitation work and are providing jobs to special children. What is your inspiration?
Anuradha: Yes, in most organisations there are prevocational and vocational courses for special kids. Then one fine day in 1999, the National Trust Act came into existence which declared no child will stay in any pre-vocational or vocational centre for more than six years. After that they have to be taken out of that place— either placed or engaged in an income-generating activity. When there was a demand to repeal the Act, we appealed to the government not to do so. I thought there would be no future for special children if they were just taught a vocational course.
Anuradha Nandakumar: A profile
Anuradha Nandakumar, 48, is a Rehabilitator under Rehabilitation Council of India, Social Activist in psychiatric social work. She has volunteered as a teacher in Chethana Trust for Mentally Ill & Handicapped and as Counsellor in Police Helpline. Apart from this, she is the former President of Inner Wheel Club of Mysore Midtown. She is the Director of Namana Creations, Founder of Saadhya, an empowerment project for dignity of special-needs citizens and Vice-President of Parivaar Karnataka, State Federation of Parents’ Associations.
Not just social work, Anuradha is also active in sports, screen-printing, theatre and many more such activities.
She has bagged the International Woman of the Year award-2008 given by the International Women’s Guild, Anu Spandana award-2011 by Inner Wheel Club of Mysore Midtown, KSOU award for working in the area of special education.
Anuradha has produced audio cassettes on — Rhymes on colours, animals, sounds, tables etc. for 5-year-olds; 'Shringara Bhaava' in DVG’s book 'Antahpura Geetegalu' etc. apart from films and documentaries "Munnota," "Nenapina Nauke" — a documentary on H.L.N.Simha, "Nail Polish" — a short film for children; "Chaavadi" — a talk show on Law of Land v/s Law of Nature etc., and has also acted in numerous plays.

An artist's quest from Greece to Mysore

Artists around the world are known to embark on quests to find an expression to their creativity and this may lead them to any corner of the world. One such artist whose quest brought him from the creative lanes of Greece to the sawdust-covered floors of Mysore's workshops is Eric Sakellaropoulos. His company Intarsia India, which began as a mere idea in Eric's mind 15 years ago, has now gained fame around the country for its intricate and conceptual wood inlay works. Intarsia India, now located in Bannimantap 'A' Layout, has its office near Ashoka Circle.

Eric Sakellaropoulos' creations have adorned the interiors of homes and offices of reputed industrialists and elites of the country including the Bajaj family in Pune, Preeti Ambani, President of Harmony Art Foundation and cousin of Anil Ambani, JK Tyres, Mamta Singhania and the like. SOM met Eric,  who has designed the interiors of buildings in Lonavala, Kolkata, Delhi, Mumbai etc., with his beautiful intarsia works, at his Mysore office. Excerpts:
Shwetha: Where did your journey into the world of intarsia begin?
Eric Sakellaropoulos: My journey into the artistic world of marquetry or intarsia began in Greece. Born to Greek and French parents, I have lived in Greece, France and Canada before coming to India. I worked as the Assistant Curator from 1984 to 1988 at the Jewish Museum in Athens under Nikos Stavroulakis, who had collected more than 12,000 Jewish artefacts that reflected the history of Jewish people in Greece. Here I built seven permanent exhibition rooms and was also involved in conservation of embroidery and brocades. It was in this museum that I got involved in architectural design and furniture-making.
I learnt marquetry or intarsia wood inlay by working in my roommate's workshop in Athens. I later visited various workshops in Cairo, Barcelona and Indonesia, apart from Borobodur in Cambodia and Ajanta caves in India. In 1989, I left Greece and settled down in Montreal, Canada. Here I designed interior spaces, bars, restaurants etc., one of my well-known work being the wall panelling of the theological chapel at McGill which won me the American Institute for Architects Award. I also taught vocational training in wood working including marquetry and furniture design.
Shwetha: Tell us about your quest for intarsia artists in India.
Eric: In 1996, I came to Anegundi in Hampi with the purpose of setting up a design centre. There I found intarsia pictures in tourist shops but couldn't get proper information out of the sellers or tourist shop owners about the raw materials for creating wood inlay products. My quest for real artisans who had created inlay works took me on an empty trip around Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. Fed up with lack of information and non-cooperation of artisans, I reached Mysore and in "the most beautiful city in all of South India" I found an end to my quest. [Eric says, when he saw the intarsia work in Mysore, he said to himself, "Ha, it's here."]
Shwetha: What happened when you reached Mysore and found your quest for intarsia artistes ended here?
Eric: Finally realising that intarsia or marquetry products found elsewhere in tourist places were originally done by the Mysore's artisans, for two weeks I knocked on every possible door in the city seeking help in finding the artisans who did the work. Many shopkeepers did not assist me as they considered their sources private and did not like intervention from a foreigner. I finally found an opportunity to work directly with the craftsmen and learnt about local wood species. Eventually I opened my own workshop with the help of Hunsur Plywoods and Mahendra Hardware.
Shwetha: Tell us about intarsia's survival in Mysore.
Eric: Mysore is one of the few places left in the world where intarsia is still being created traditionally. There are about 1,500 artisans in Mandi Mohalla and Bannimantap who still use the same techniques used some centuries ago. Though intarsia here is mainly based on religious carvings, nowadays intricately designed furniture and architectural pieces with other art forms too have surfaced.
The Mysore artisans should evolve according to changed times. They should emerge out of their cocoons of traditional art to reach a wider network with good quality wood work.
Shwetha: What are you future plans for the development of the art?
Eric: My company Intarsia India employs 20 staff. With a view to include women in the craft, I conducted training workshops about eight or nine times for women. But most of the trainees left at the finishing stage due to family problems. Not deterred by this, I still hope to bring women artisans to the fore by training them as they are efficient and hard-working.
I believe that craftsmanship in Mysore is stagnant as there is a tendency to separate fine arts from technology as is being done at Chamaraja Technical Institute (CTI) and Chamarajendra Academy of Visual Arts (CAVA). CTI and CAVA should be intermingling and the artists of CAVA should in fact be at CTI learning hands-on craftsmanship and those of CTI upstairs at CAVA library, studying finer nuances of fine arts. The fine arts students should not think it is below them to learn wood cutting and other basic works necessary for sculpting, inlaying.
When Japan can merge modern with the traditional styles and market their products successfully, even the Indian artisans, especially those in Mysore, should think of changing their styles.
Shwetha: What is your next step?
Eric: My next step is to start a school for training craftsmen, including more number of women in the city. I have been struggling since many years for govt. aid but gave up, tired of bureaucratic hurdles. The school will train the artisans from the scratch — wood cutting to the polished end product.
Now, I am mooting to convert my company into a Private Limited so that the artisans who work there will also own a piece of the company.
Mysore is perhaps the only place in the world that plays hosts to a community of artisans who have been engaged in creating pictorial marquetry with the same techniques that were employed during Renaissance.
It is ironic that this intarsia art is being preserved not by our ignorant government or by local art enthusiasts, but by a foreigner.
[Eric may be contacted on Mob:98804-39882].