Kannan

I will begin by writing about Kannan, who has been a student at the school since its founding 16 years ago. He is originally from Tamil Nadu and he spoke Tamil, but he has learned to speak Malayalam while at the school. Kannan is in his mid-forties and is part of the vocational class at Asadeepam. He has mild mental retardation and is visually impaired. He becomes frustrated very easily when he is disciplined or when things do not go according to schedule. The power went off one night during dinner, and he became very agitated. His hands display scars from his problem behaviour of biting his hands. With the help of the staff at Asadeepam, this behaviour has decreased significantly, however I have still seen him bite his hand (with the few teeth he has left) when he is upset. Kannan is very interested in the principal's son, and will always ask her how he is doing. When his star is in the sky, Kannan reminds the principal to visit the temple. Because Kannan is almost completely blind, it is difficult for him to participate in the vocational class (making envelopes, jewelery, knitting...) but he is still eager to help so he carries the materials to and from the storage room and stands by if anything needs to be done. He is also one of the students who acts as a watchman for the school. He sits by the front door and opens the gate for visitors.

Kannan has not seen his family in 10 years. They live in Tamil Nadu and they have not made the trip to visit him or to take him home for the holidays. This has put a big burden on the principal of the school because she must be responsible for Kannan throughout the entire year. The family cannot afford to contribute to Kannan's expenses, however it is unfair that they have not visited their son in 10 years. The principal spoke to the parents this week and said that they must come to take Kannan during the holidays in April. He is very excited to see his family again, and I really hope they choose to come.

Kannan has quite an extraordinary gift. He has memorised calendars from about 1950 to 2020 so he can remember the day of the week for any date in between this period. He told me that I was born on a Sunday under a certain Malayalam star, and that this past Saturday marked my one-month anniversary at Asadeepam. The principal of Asadeepam takes advantage of Kannan's gift when she needs to remember the dates of visitors of appointments. I have used Kannan's gift to plan visits to upcoming festivals. Despite Kannan's extraordinary gift of memory, he is still unable to integrate into society due to his mental and physical disabilities, along with his behavioural problems. At Asadeepam, he is learning to find alternatives to his problem behaviour, and he is developing social and vocational skills.