When I See That Boy With Mongolian Face!

Let me make a long guess that many of you know the word "Mongolian Face". A face that is round and flat, has slanted eyes, small chin and ears, and some tongue mostly sticking out of the mouth. In a jiffy, my medical fellows would promptly diagnose it as a face with Down's Syndrom, but those scholars with no medical touch might resemble it with the famous Mongolian face of Genghis Khan, and in all sense they are right! 

When I See That Boy With Mongolian Face! 

However, my point here is not to preach about medical science on Downs's Syndrome or plainly, the Mongolism, but about how it feels when someone with this face SMILES😊at you!

Yes, the SMILE 😊 from this boy, who, if not daily, but frequently accompanies me from my apartment gate and shares his troubled pace with me as we begin our final steps towards our homes. He is the boy with Down's Syndrome and not the face of Genghis Khan, who lives in the same apartment where I, too, have a flat.     

On most evenings, when I am returning to my home in my shining, air-conditioned car, I see this boy. And every time I see him, I look upon myself as being an overprivileged, eternally blessed, yet an ungrateful social individual who is tumefied with the splendidness of his lavish life; a life that is biologically, physically, socially, and economically monumental. For that, I think I was selected to be so, but then I got muddled up again, ruminating that when it was all about being selected, then what error did this boy end up with GOD during the process of selection! God gave him birth but deprived him of life with the domains that I was living so joyously.   

Besides, see the natural paradox here:

It is so easy for me to switch off the engine, unlock the door, fetch my backpack, and step down from my car in less than five seconds, but he has to be assisted to touch the ground while stepping down from his school van. 

I could quickly order my feet to fly, but he has to wait until his uncharged mind gathers the signals, just to move his feet. 

I, carelessly, even subconsciously would swing my backpack over my shoulder, but he, unmoved for a bit, would timidly try to adjust the strap of his shoulder bag before in actuality he would start to walk.

I am aware of my past, the present, even the future tomorrow as in what is in my "To DO List", but for him, it is all the same; a looking-like-a-life picture he might be staring at!

Daily, I cross my paths with number of strangers and still remain unintimidated, but he sees me often, offering a cautious smile in the end, but every other day when he shares his gaze with me, I am still a stranger for him, frightening him almost for the first few moments! 

The Unfairness here:

Biologically he bears the most foundational defect, even say an arithmetical error of a cell, where his faulty modelling is due to a gift; an extra chromosome gifted to him by the universe, and not to us! Unfair, isn't it?

The short walk: 

In his shy and indecisive demeanor, that boy happened to be stepping down the van, and there was I, learning the doggedness of differently abled individual. As always, he unfolded slowly out of his slugishness, looked up at his apartment in his tiny, searching eyes, let the van drive off, and with a profoundly troubled face aimed up for his home. 

I reckoned that he already has seen me, but his mind is taking time to orient. Nonjudgmentally, I walked after him; he kept walking without turning his small head behind for me. Needless to say that I was sensing his tension, though this was a routine for both of us. Escorting each other we reached the elevator, packed in, and stood still without emitting a word. He would press three and I would press four, and then he would stare his feet. The elevator rang and lifted off the ground. He still was under heavy tension! I can say. 

After a while elevator doors parted and he checked his strap again. And there I was, looking at him stepping out of the elevator and trying to understand how terrible it must be feeling when you have to live the same day again and again filled with helplessness, fear, and apprehension for the things that are nothing but the routines. Things that are just the matter of a snap for us!

The SMILE 😊

However, there is something transcendental to biological dysfunction or structural disaster of a human body, and that is Emotions. No matter how much disabling they could be, these emotions never betray. In fact, they evolve, prosper and last! So between us, biology never mettared, what mattered was the FEELING that connects every individual in this universe.   

He walked out, turned around to close the door of elevator, and now, he Smiled at me, and as if I had this enlightenment of true life, I smiled back. In the end, the door closed and he disappeared.

Well wait, before you leave, let me conclude here by unveiling the shocking truth I just learnt from my mother. I then got flabbergasted when she said that the one who am I quoting as a boy is older than me! And he is 42! years old! Still thriving 

The lesson I learned: 

In the end what matters is a Smile😊! Remember, life is not the same for all; if you are crying for something(s) you don't have now and then, you are at a total loss as long as you have a mind that thinks, rationalizes, and interprets correctly, have two legs that obey you at your command, have two hands that are skillful, and a social recognition that helps you make money. Stop grumbling, stop complaining, and stop taking things for granted.

So maybe he is not Genghis Khan, but a warrior of life. 

Because if he can SMILE, then I can smile, and you have a thousand reasons to imitate us as the same!        

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