Shivangi’s father writes “Journey of life is a Pandora box filled with stories and twisting surprises. One story here begins with a young Indian man migrating to the other side of the world searching for knowledge and exploring the profoundness of life. Two years later, perhaps with god’s gracious and well-envisaged decision, this man finds his soul mate in a beautiful Indian girl who was also dreaming for embracing a family life filled with joy. The couple began the voyage of their love and fun-filled life together. On a pleasant summertime, nine years ago, this couple was blessed with a beautiful little princess, “Shivangi”. Eventually, in their life, this couple had to accept the truth that their beautiful daughter, Shivangi is a girl with Autism with a significant deficit in verbal communication. In the beginning, this was an unbearable feeling for this couple but the unmatchable presence and captivating smiles of Shivangi bestowed them the much needed confidence, courage and presence of mind to thrive through their life and, it is still the same and would always be the same for their entire coveted life. Shivangi’s father couldn’t stand a day with out seeing her and her mother always cherished her, talked to her, dressed up her, taught her and found a very close-to-the-heart friend in her. The couple and the world around them always wondered how Shivangi, a non-verbal girl with autism, brings such a unique state of happiness to her family and community around her! We, as parents always wondered about this too…We cherish this moment, when 3-year old shivangi returned to USA from her 6 moths long trip from India, as she picture perfectly recollected and identified the picture of one cartoon character that we used play in TV when she was just 2 year old, “Kai-Lan” on a small grocery store packet and clearly uttered, “Ni-Hao Kai-Lan”. We never realized earlier, when she was a two year old toddler, that she was actually paying attention to these cartoon segments as revealed through her blank looking face. That incident was an eye-opener for us as parents in that “Shivangi, though non-verbal, always communicated, communicates and will communicate to us through out our life through images!”. And this has been always like this and the statement “Shivangi contemplates through images” got firmly got embedded to our minds. We now realize that pictures of life flips a lot faster through her mind and brain and she find it difficult to convert them to actual words in a way through which the current world could comprehend her. Shivangi loves pictures and coloring pictures. Her life’s first comprehension that took us by surprise and to an extreme level of joy was when she first identified all basic colors by herself..…. red, green, blue, yellow, brown, black and white. Wow!! What a great moment that was for us as parents!! Yes we realize that she loves pictures…she loves colors…..she loves seeing herself, her parents, friends, animals and all that she knows in nature in pictures. We, right from the heart, always wished to gift her the best thing ever that she would want to have and we vividly realize that the best thing that she would love to have is a beautiful collection of real life fairy pictures in which she herself intensely mingle with mother nature…. We are hopefully and eagerly awaiting for that very day when we, as parents, could present that gift to her………”
Heather says “Shivangi is stunning, inside and out. She has this ethereal, floating quality to her. She doesn’t walk, she flutters. She doesn’t just look at you, she looks through you and sees YOU. The you that you’ve hidden away a little because it’s so delicate and tender, she knows that you in everyone. It’s a very interesting vulnerability and yet strength, because she truly IS there, even if she doesn’t say it the way we do. She’s a treasure to everyone who meets her.”
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