Dhruhi – Our Divine Inspiration

Year 2015, after a labour of 9 months on the part of my wife & excitement and anticipation on both me & my wife’s part, on 25th August 2015 we were blessed with a Daughter, our first child.

The most excited of this news was my Mom, because after 40 years finally a Girl Child had been born in her household. My mom had 2 sons – My Elder Brother & Me. And my brother had a son in 2005. So finally after 40 years, Her dream of having a Daughter had finally been realised albeit in the form of her Grand Daughter.

Until the birth of my Daughter, I hated the colour Pink. Not just that, I hated any colour belonging to family of Pink, pastels.

And to its complete opposite the first message I forwarded to my relatives and friends on birth of my Daughter was – ‘Colour the sky Pink’ Just as me and my mom, in the excitement to see my wife and my newly born child, entered the Delivery Room, we were informed by the Gynaecologist & the Paediatrician present that, they had a doubt that our child had some abnormality and that they suspect that the child might be born with Trisomy-21, more popularly known as Downs Syndrome.

It seemed like our world had come crashing down.

Despite that difficult to digest news, we fought the negative thoughts and after much search for suitable names we named her as per her Gujarati Raashi, DHRUHI – Divine. Which, she indeed is for all of us, especially for her Grandmother.

As much difficult was the news of our first born’s medical diagnosis, raising her to be her independent self has been our privilege.

Since day one of her birth Dhruhi has been an alert, expressive, communicative, happy child. Yes, she has had delay in her speech and walking but in every other aspect she is ‘there’.

If one explains her properly, she does not fear trying and she definitely does not believe in giving up. Dhruhi will do everything if we take an active part in that activity. And she will try to do it exactly as explained or exhibited to her, just like a mirror image.

During my wife’s second pregnancy, it was Dhruhi who assisted and took care of my wife. She would ensure that my wife rests good and fetch whatever my wife wanted. And on my wife delivering a son, Dhruhi would help my wife in changing his nappies, fetching milk, making him sleep.

Early Intervention has helped us in laying a strong foundation for her growth and the regular therapy sessions have ensured that we are able to build on that foundation progressively.

Dhruhi has successfully graduated from Mother Toddler to Playgroup at Kangaroo’s Kids to Nursery to Jr. KG at Mount Litera World Pre-School to Sr. KG to Grade-1 at Seven Rivers International School, with all the respective faculty’s expressing great confidence in Dhruhi’s abilities.

Throughout our journey so far, Dhruhi never fails to surprise us, her therapy specialists and her school teachers, in fact we all unanimously concur that she raises the bar high each time and puts up a challenge in front of all of us.

Like, last year we shifted Dhruhi from a Pre-School – Mount Litera World Pre-School to a formal big School – Seven Rivers International School from Sr. KG onwards. And, to our bad coincidence owing to the Covid pandemic national lockdown was announced. Like all the kids, Dhruhi too had to attend online schooling. When we raised our concerns and reservations to the faculty about her being able to cope up and that we would prefer Dhruhi repeat her Jr. KG in the new school. Thus providing her a buffer from the impact of online schooling and getting acclimatised to the new school, friends and faculty. The Principal of her new school requested us to allow her and her faculty members have an online session with Dhruhi to make their independent objective assessment of Dhruhi’s abilities. And after making her assessment, the Principal of the school who has had years of active experience in the schooling field, assured us that Dhruhi is fit and has abilities to progress with Sr. KG schooling and that they are confident that Dhruhi will cope well.
And to all our pleasant surprise against all the odds Dhruhi has today on merit graduated to the 1st standard, in which too she is doing well.
In the pics and the video attached you will find Dhruhi showcasing her pop-art making talent.

Today, Dhruhi’s medical diagnosis is important to us only to ensure that we provide her better care, tools, opportunities & nothing more.

For us, Sun rises and sets with Dhruhi’s smile.