Trick or Treat - a survival guide to health care
34 Unquestioning Acceptance Jupiter and the Monkey: Jupiter organised a show where all the beasts could
bring their offsprings. The best offspring in Jupiter's opinion would get a prize. A
monkey brought her offspring, a hairless, flat nosed little fright. On seeing it, Jupiter and all the other gods burst into laughter. The monkey hugged her little one and told them, "You may give your coveted prize to any one you like the best. But to me, my baby is the most beautiful of them all.".
Uma, a bank employee, gave birth to a spastic child. The relatives advised her to
institutionalise the child and said, "After all you are young. You can get another baby. It
will be healthy.� But Uma was firm and told them, "The apple of my eye need not be
yours too. Ganesh is a special child. I will look after him.� To ensure giving her undivided attention and raise Ganesh, she did not conceive again. Comments Uma is a role model of an ideal mother. She is real. I know some more like her. But
most parents expect the ideal height, ideal weight, ideal features and complexion in their children. The societal concept of 'ideal' is often what is portrayed in the media. Majority
of people look down upon persons with less than ideal characteristics. They may
institutionalise these unfortunate persons, and enforce drug treatment or unwarranted
surgery like hysterectomy upon them. Once, I was approached by a middle class mother
of a 16-year old infantile dwarf girl. She offered her child for any kind of research 103
