may turn Tito's amazing story into a film

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may turn Tito's amazing story into a film

NEW DELHI, India: The life story of Rajarshi ("Tito") Mukhopadhyay - a 13-year-old autistic boy who has become a successful poet and author - may now be turned into a Hollywood movie starring . The actress has bought the movie rights to Portia Iverson’s touching tale of two mothers -one from a mansion in Los Angeles, the other from a small flat in Bangalore - who team up to seek help for their severely autistic sons. may even star in the movie adaptation of the yet-to-be-published "Strange Son" as one of the mothers. If she does, it will be another leap in a remarkable story which began in Bangalore with one woman and her determination to change the life of her son diagnosed with severe autism. The disease robs a person of social, communicative and cognitive skills and has no known cure. Like all autistic children, Tito learned to sit and walk such as other babies. But by the time he was 18 months old, he was showing signs that he was not "normal" - preferring to remain aloof and refusing to talk. When he was three, doctors told Soma Mukhopadhyay (an engineer) that her son was autistic. Where others would have despaired, Soma decided that was not the answer. In methods that many call controversial, she began teaching Tito day and night, ceaselessly prodding him, refusing to let his mind rest or stray. When Tito indicated he would rather crawl up in a corner, she would forcibly take him out for daily walks and talk about the things around them. After some time, she started tying a pencil to his hand and showing him how to write, often refusing to let him eat until he could do so. In his book, Tito says she often beat him up. Soma never doubted her son could learn, and it may have made all the difference. Along the way, she made up other methods, much like most mothers of autistic children in India are forced to do for lack of expert care. With Tito’s father away working in another city, Soma played music to him, read him books - Aesop’s fables, Dickens, Shakespeare - and then demanded he write stories of his own. Tito responded. Two years ago, his first book, "Beyond the Silence," was published, compiled of his writings at eight and 11. While the 13-year-old’s communicative skills remain undeveloped - he finds it difficult to talk and hear at the same time, or pick up a pad and pen till his mother urges him to - all this changes when Tito writes. "I need to write," the boy wrote recently. "It has become part of me. I am waiting to get famous." The book was to ensure that. It caught the attention of Portia Iverson, a screenwriter, Emmy Award-winning art director and the mother of a 10-year-old autistic son, Dov. She and her husband, Hollywood producer Jon Shestack (Air Force One), are behind Cure Autism Now (CAN), the largest private supporter of autism research in the US. CAN sponsored Soma and Tito’s move to Los Angeles in July 2001 and continues to support them. The approach Soma used with her son also got a name - Rapid Prompting Method, or RAM. Since then the mother and son have been at the centre of constant media and scientific attention. Few come away unimpressed. Scientists who have tested Tito say he is for real, and defies all the assumptions made so far about autism. Merry Barua, the founder of the New Delhi-based organisation, Action for Autism, who has interacted with Tito, calls him "a fascinating boy with an amazing mind." According to Barua, he shows that many people with autism have very bright minds trapped inside their bodies. In other words, Iverson says, Tito answers the questions of many parents like herself who want to know what their children are going through but can’t. Questions like: why do autistic children flap their hands, why don’t they make eye contact, why do they rock? "When I was four or five years old," Tito once wrote, "I hardly realised I had a body, except when I was hungry or when I realised I was standing under the shower and my body got wet. I needed constant movement, which made me get the feeling of my body ... Every movement is a proof that I exist. I exist because I can move." Scentists say people with autism have difficulty framing a body-map. Tito has also told researchers that people with autism choose one sensory channel, and that he chose hearing. He attends to the sounds of language and to oral information, which may help explain his gift for poetry. Vision, for him, is painful. Another time, he wrote: "The shapes come first and then the colour. If it moves, I have to start over again." While researchers continue to study Tito, more and more parents are approaching Soma to help them with their autistic children. Reports say they have been thrilled by the results. Iverson gives the example of own son, Dov, who has started speaking full sentences since Soma took him under her wings. Iverson says that, when she asked her son recently what he was doing all these years when he wouldn’t respond to her, Dov pointed out letters to spell: "Listening." Tito wouldn’t be surprised. Asked once what he thought the biggest misperception that people had of autism was, he said: "That they don’t have any understanding." On Tito’s home page, a small poem elaborates more: "A world of such can’t it beWith acceptance and love, not sympathyMy story could touch if your heartMy ‘hope’ would get that precious reward." (Source: Indian Express, September 30, 2003) Headlines Archive Top UK government adviser blames Blair for crisis of confidence in MMR jab... Parents of autistic children fight for disabled parking rights... Hundreds of British parents will challenge withdrawal of legal aid to fight MMR battle... 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