Spectrum-The Book

Spectrum

Jyothi first heard of the word Spectrum in college while studying engineering. Like many other words that one drops outside of college, Spectrum did not feature in Jyothi's life till much later when her only child was diagnosed as autistic. "Autism spectrum disorder is a condition related to brain development that impacts how a person perceives and socializes with others, causing problems in social interaction and communication. The disorder also includes limited and repetitive patterns of behavior. The term "spectrum" in autism spectrum disorder refers to the wide range of symptoms and severity. (Ref. Mayo Clinic - https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions).

Managing a child with autism changes anyone and Jyothi was not any different. Mostly what happened to Jyothi was that she began to see the world differently and when you alter your mindset that you don't have to teach your child everything and there are some things that the child will teach you - a whole new world opens up.

Therefore in between job changes, geography changes and in keeping her tight schedules with her jobs - Jyothi thought about writing a new book that would deal with her own experiences of managing an autistic child. However, the plans changed when her daughter began to grow older and slowly began to develop her own character, her own likes and her very strong dislikes. Jyothi allowed that blossoming to happen, providing her daughter the ecosystem to bloom into the individual that her daughter was shaping out to be.

Her daughter told her many stories. Of shadows lurking behind the door. Of people with three eyes and many hands and as days flew by into years - Jyothi knew that these were not merely fairy stories. Her daughter was talking about things that ordinary human beings could not see. From the day that belief was set in Jyothi stopped terming her child a special child. Indeed for every mother her child was special - whether special meant conforming to nomenclature or not - but by then Jyothi knew that her daughter was special in a variety of different ways. It was the first time that she came face to face with the term "An old soul who's come here many times before." She realized that her daughter was a wise old soul and it was Jyothi who was indeed special to be a mother to such a soul.

From then on the relationship between mother and daughter changed and now what blossomed was a partnership that was supportive of each other.

By then the Spectrum story too had changed in Jyothi's mind. It was no longer about the autism spectrum as much as it was about a spectrum that was shrinking dangerously. In her fictional dictionary Spectrum is that thin embryonic-like shell that exists around Earth as protection of Earth against the ravages of whatever might be on the other side. The tiny layer between the earth and its outer existence. She was pained to see the massive amount of destruction that was being done to the Earth. Funnily enough, she noticed, it was not carried out by the so-called uneducated, primitive, illiterate people who were the original inhabitants of this earths' primary homes - its forests. But it was large corporations and institutions, intelligent men and women - greedy to their core - that was destroying vast tracts of earth's pristine cover just for money!

No one was talking about the absolute destruction of these virgin forests loud enough for the people of the earth to stop it. Of course, there were some celebrities - especially and more recently - like Leonardo Dicaprio and the former VP of the USA - Al Gore and then a whole lot of other names. Many of them lent their faces and their brand images hoping that it would make a dent in the destruction. But it has not stopped anything. More than anything else - the cutting down of the virgin forests and deforestation has only increased. So much so that the rainforests of the Amazon are now shrinking in size and its inhabitants the Indigenous People therein are being displaced in droves.

The Indigenous people - even in India - have a minimal voice, minimal representation and almost zero hands holding when they lose their generations-old habitat. They try to assimilate with a society that is completely alien to their culture and their upbringing that they land up being "Societal dropouts".

So Jyothi Menon's Spectrum is about that story where a little girl living in a tea estate in the highlands of Munnar, Kerala, India who is visited by a couple of aliens on a rainy day. The story - like most of Jyothi's other books - has a deeper connection for the reader.

It takes the reader on a magic carpet ride through forests that have an indigenous even now character still, sacred places of the indigenous people that are influenced by the Earth, the Sun, the Atmosphere, the Water and the Intelligence Source that the Indigenous People seem to be connected with and from whom they have derived their amazing survival skills.

After all, they have lived peacefully in these same woods without destroying it or falling ill to diseases such as malaria or cholera - which seem to affect only those that came to replace the Indigenous population or diseases which the replacers brought with them.

Jyothi believes that people like her - with good jobs and who can leverage technology - don't get involved enough and that is why there is so little support for the indigenous populations and so little talked about them or their habitats. Imagine if someone in a Google or a Facebook could showcase the plight of a particular indigenous tribe in a specific geography and if that could garner enough support and go viral - boom! They have a solid platform to showcase the sad insecure existence of the indigenous people of our disappearing forests.

Therefore Spectrum is that effort by an individual woman to bring attention to the dwindling forests, the fate of the world that we are leaving for our future generation and the plight of the indigenous people with a rich culture that goes back eons much before there was technology. In fact, the only technology then was the Fabulous Connect between Man and the Universe and we have replaced that with the existing culture that we speak about currently or the intellectualism that is now being propagated as the only intelligence that one should possess.

This effort has taken her about four years and it is in its final phases. A whole lot of people have joined Jyothi in her effort to showcase this cause to the world and if you believe that you have a voice that you want to contribute, feel free and connect with Jyothi in the email link provided below.