What happened then? Did they forget about the incident and it ended here?
Aryan was picked up by his dad, Ayaz, from bus-stop. He was shocked to see his son’s bulgy eyes and red cheek. Out of utmost concern, he asked Aryan ‘What happened?’
Aryan, who has forgotten the whole incident by now and was back to being friends with Raju, burst into tears. He pointed towards Raju who was getting down from the bus. Ayaz, lost his control, pulled 4 year old Raju, his son’s culprit by the collar and slapped him tight on both the cheeks. Aryan was taken aback and did not know what to say.
Raju, on other hand was flabbergasted by the assault, goes numb. As soon as he reaches home, Raju’s mom, Sheena, notices his red cheeks and his shocked kid. She tries asking him but he couldn’t speak. She washed his face with water and shook him hard. Raju came back to his senses and started crying uncontrollably. Sheena had a great difficulty pacifying him but was still unaware of the cause of Raju’s numbness and red cheeks.
Finally from one his classmate, who has witnessed the scene on bus stop and in school, she found out the cause of Raju’s behavior but was still uncertain how to handle this. She just gets back to her routine work.
In couple of hours, Sheena notices Raju was not himself. He has lost his confidence. He was hiding behind the chair, refusing to play, shivering on hearing the doorbell, mobile calls and much more. Sheena decided to seek help from expert.
Raju seemed calmer around the expert. She gave crayons and encouraged him to sketch the man who has hit him. Raju intensely drew the picture of Aryan’s dad and the bus-stop.
She requested him to tear those sketches and throw the remains in dustbin.
Raju felt happy and rips off those sketches into bit and pieces. He was beaming after discarding those pieces as walked with confidence to the expert and thanked her.
A confident, happy boy and a relieved mother went back home.
If you are having problems in letting things go, you should not hestitate in seeking help from counselor.
This story is based on real life cases handled by Mahalakshmi Rajagopal, Founder Director Sahayam – One Stop Intervention Centre for Children and Adults. We have changed the names to respect privacy.