NEVER GIVING UP ON OUR KARAN

Never giving up on our karanDecember 7, 2007? Friday, September 30, 2010? Friday, September 20, 2009? Sunday.” With startling accuracy, Karan Beri, a 20-year-old student from Adliya is reeling off the days of the week as random dates are thrown at him.

“He can tell the day of the week of any future or past date,” explains his mother Gopika, “and he can remember the day and date of every event in his life since he was four.”

Dressed in a black T-shirt, jeans, and designer glasses, Karan looks like any other fashion-conscious young man. But his movements are ever-so-slightly awkward and like a shy teenager, he won’t hold your eye. He is extremely polite but his sentences are short and overly precise.

Karan has a form of autism called Asperger’s Syndrome (AS). It’s a disorder at the milder end of the autism spectrum which typically involves sufferers being poor at reading emotions in others and understanding their motivation, but can show remarkable, although narrow interests in anything from number sequences to light-bulbs.

Karan burst into the public eye at the 16th World Memory Championships held in Bahrain last month.

He was Bahrain’s only competitor and his remarkable abilities at memorising decks of cards and binary sequences were honoured with a certificate awarded by competition officials.

It was a moment that caught the public’s imagination and inspired documentary film-makers and journalists to pursue his story.

He will appear in a Discovery Channel documentary and an Indian TV channel plans to make a film about him.        

“His participation was a wonderful moment for us,” says Gopika. “I was so proud of Karan. There were champions from all over the world there and my boy was among them.”

For Gopika it was a moment of recognition in which her son – who for many years was ostracised by his peers and taunted by bullies – was the pride of the country in which he was born.

Importantly, it also recognised Gopika’s relentless commitment and her unfailing belief in Karan.

“A lady came up to me recently and said you don’t know me but I know you from your picture in the paper, and I want to congratulate you for all the work you’ve done with your son. It was really so nice to hear,” she says.

Gopika and her family have worked tirelessly with Karan, ignoring advice to give up, encouraging his abilities and ensuring that he has been able to live as normal a life as possible.

Over the years Gopika has literally rewritten books, turning them into easily digestible segments to help him achieve an education in an environment that doesn’t cater for special needs.

Today Karan has a part-time job, close friends and the kind of mental abilities that should ensure a bright future.

As he plays with a Rubick’s cube and occasionally darts over to the computer to play solitaire (a game which he says he always wins), it seems that Karan’s autism is a strength rather then a disability.

Autism is a complex and lifelong condition. It affects at least one per cent of the population and there is no cure – although many argue that autism is simply another form of human development which the development of a ‘cure’ would unfairly eliminate.

A recent eight-year study of 253 children at Cambridge University revealed that autism was linked to the amount of testosterone that fetuses receive while in the womb. The results of the study assert that testosterone pushes brain development in a more autistic direction and that autism is the manifestation of an ‘extreme male brain.’

Children with autism were shown to have a strong exaggeration of the male profile, with interests in number systems, but had difficulties with female traits such as empathy.

Head of the project, Dr Simon Baron-Cohen said: “There is a very lively debate about whether autism should simply be recognised as an atypical pattern of development like left-handedness which doesn’t necessarily need treatment. It just needs to be recognised as different and maybe supported educationally but not cured or eradicated.” 

Those with the condition often show a remarkable attention to detail and an ability to concentrate for long periods on a small topic in depth.

But despite the incredible feats performed by autistics – Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton are believed to have had the condition – negative aspects associated with autism leave thousands of families suffering the anguish of watching their children spiral into secretive, obsessive and lonely worlds.

For Gopika, a highly-educated woman and the acting head of training and development at Bahrain Airport Services, it was evident that Karan was different from a very early age.

“At the age of two-and-a-half he could memorise the alphabet forwards and backwards,” she explains.

It didn’t take long for her to realise that Karan wasn’t like other kids.

“By the time he was three-and-a-half years old, I realised that there was no eye contact. He was extremely stubborn and moody and when he tried to mix with other children they wouldn’t accept him.”

Like many with AS, Karan developed obsessions. He counted all the time and developed a fixation with his calculator. 

“He would also get very possessive over a certain book or T-shirt,” explains Gopika. “He wouldn’t remove his socks and wanted to sleep with them on, so I learnt to just say OK.

“I remember I would ask, Karan my boy, why are you like this?”

Doctors yielded few answers, and were often more confusing then enlightening.

Gopika and her husband Nalin, a property consultant, took Karan to numerous specialists.

“We took him to health centres in Bahrain where tests were done on him, but they didn’t tell me much,” says Gopika. “We took him to a doctor in Dubai who said his IQ was touching normal and I was really shocked as I knew he was a highly intelligent boy. Then I took him to India and they gave him a completely different diagnosis. We took him to Jordan and they did an MRI and found nothing. I really didn’t know what was happening.

“First he was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder, then autism and AS. In this part of the world there isn’t much awareness about these conditions.”

In addition to searching for illusive answers about Karan’s condition, another challenging aspect of his childhood was his education.

At school Karan often endured miserable and forlorn days. After a brief stint at the Asian School, Karan attended the New Indian School at the age of four, followed by Al Noor at six and the Indian School at eight.

Predictably he was excellent at maths and aspects of general knowledge, but struggled with essay-based subjects – and in his interaction with his classmates.

“Children would bully him and he didn’t know how to interact with them,” explains Gopika. “He hated going to school. He was very innocent and would take things at face value. He couldn’t pick up cues or handle nasty children.

“Permission meant nothing to him and he would wander around and go into the principal’s office anytime he liked.”

Gopika was forced to make frequent trips to Karan’s schools when he got into trouble, the teachers often unable to deal with his needs.

Terrifyingly, Karan also developed an intense physical reaction to difficult situations. If children were mean to him a dangerously high fever would flare up.

“It really scared me,” says Gopika. “I decided I would always try and keep him very calm and around people he likes.”

Today Karan writes daily in his diary, a habit that Gopika encourages.

“He writes about people who are nasty to him and pours out his frustration, and I encourage him as it serves a stress-buster,” she explains.

Gopika’s profession (she also sits on the board of directors of the Bahrain Society for Training and Development) helped her deal with Karan in ways that most parents couldn’t.

As an educator she was familiar with using different methodologies.

“If I found something didn’t work with him I would move onto something else,” she explains.

Gopika noticed that Karan had a particular love for the colour yellow. It soothed him, so she filled his bedroom with yellow toys, pictures, bed linen and curtains, and, when it came to helping him with school work it became a valuable tool.

“I realised the key to unlocking certain understandings in him was the colour yellow. In the Indian system it’s mostly rote-learning, the portions are vast and you have to complete the syllabus in a very short space of time,” she explains.

After work, and between evening shifts teaching English to earn extra money, Gopika would write out vast sections of books into easily assimilated sections.

Often she would work until two in the morning preparing notes for Karan. When she wrote answers to questions in yellow and composed mnemonics Karan would learn quickly.

To flex his memory and power up his observational skills she played mind games with him such as word association games, memorising capital cities and composing anagrams.

Incredibly, through the dedication of his mother Karan passed every school year until the 10th standard at the age of 16.

“He passed every class because I worked so hard with him,” she says.

Karan’s father, she explains was not so involved with his education because she felt it was better for him to have the consistency of one teacher. Instead Nalin would take Karan swimming and for long walks where they would explore the souq followed by evenings watching Karan’s favourite TV shows.

“I would get impatient and frustrated at times,” said Nilan. “I would wonder why he wouldn’t listen to us. But he was also a very nice child. The good parts balance the difficult parts and others are always telling us how amazing his talents are.”

Another major factor in Karan’s success has been his sister Kanika, an intelligent, pretty19-year-old student who studies at the Birla Institute of Technology.

Despite the endless hours that Gopika would spend working with Karan, Kanika would not get too jealous.

“She would say that I loved Karan more than her,” explains Gopika. “But I explained to her that Karan needed more help. She has done a lot for him. She used to take him everywhere with her and when I was at work she would teach him.”

Karan and Kanika have a very close relationship. They were both born in Bahrain. Over the years his younger sister has helped him with many aspects of his life from school work to socialising.

In many ways her attention has saved Karan from the profound isolation and depression that young people with AS can suffer.

“Karan is very attached to me,” says Kanika. “He confides in me, tells me all his problems and secrets. He is very protective, he takes care of me and we share a very good friendship. I love him; he is an incredibly sweet brother.”

It’s been a long journey for the Beri family, but over time Karan has adapted and become more and more independent and the embodiment of a success story that shows how those with AS can lead remarkable lives.

Despite failing his last high school exam, Karan enrolled at India National Open School and successfully gained a place at the Baisan Institute of Hospitality and Hotel Management.

As a result he is now a few months into an internship at Al Dar Island Resort, where he works as a kitchen assistant, determined to follow his dream of one day opening his own restaurant.

“He was so thrilled to get his first salary, and we were so proud of him,” says Gopika.

Karan has also participated in and won quiz competitions and modelled for a number of clothing brands.

He is very well travelled, although he says he hopes to always live in Bahrain, a country he says he loves.

Among his family, friends and acquaintances at the Indian Club and Marina Club, Karan is a star, frequently called on to recite dates and mind-bending multiplications.

Another prominent talent of Karan’s is his photographic ability to remember names and faces and people’s birthdays and anniversaries. It’s also an expensive skill as Karan calls everyone to wish them many happy returns on the family’s telephone.

“If you tell him your birthday and phone number he’ll call you,” says Nalin. “We never have to remember anything. Karan will always remind us.”

Since his high-profile participation in the World Memory Championships memory trainers from South Africa and India have offered to train Karan remotely to prepare for next year’s championships.

Karan’s old classmates have also got in touch. Through a social networking website one old classmate apologised to Karan for the way he treated him at school.

Things have certainly changed for Karan.

“It was lonely for Karan when he was younger but now he has so many friends,” says Gopika.

“I would like to tell other mothers who have children with disorders to never give up hope, because with the right attention and focus one can achieve wonders.”

His mother’s dream is that Karan will be offered a full-time position in the hospitality industry and hopes to secure his future by making him completely independent – something this extraordinary young man is well on the way to becoming.