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  Ready for an Isspeshal story?   Goldiboy and the Three Apes..--- An Isspeshal Fairy Tale --   yes, you guessed it right! It’s a spin-off on the popular fairy tale, Goldilocks and the Three Bears. The spin here is that Goldiboy is a teenage boy, with a dazzling, golden smile. Goldiboy likes things ‘Just Right’. The smell of a Thai curry is off-putting for him, nor does he like the gooey pasta. But a gluten-free grilled cheese sandwich, yes, Goldiboy loves it! Maybe you will think that this Goldiboy is fussy? We would say that he is ‘neurodivergent’. You and I perhaps fall in the ‘neurotypical’ category. But does that make a ‘neurodivergent’ teenager any less than us? No, ‘we are same same but different’. A gorgeously illustrated Goldiboy and the Three Apes is a peek into the life of kids on autism spectrum disorder. The picture book has been conceived and penned by Ashiish V Patil, an autism dad, for his son Rishaan, who was diagnosed with the disorder at the age of two and

'There was nothing wrong in it,' Dada Bhai said, his head bent towards the cold, unyielding floor. 'Sir?' asked Tapan, who had followed him out, just as he had ushered him in personally. 'A boy and girl loved each other. There was nothing wrong in what Sanaz did. Love. That is what is halal for me.' Valmiki would not be contained, she knew, whenever the news reached him. He would rage within. Waste away in the cavity of his chest. She needed to bundle up all her nerve and pack it inside her. Convey to him soundlessly that he was fortunate to be loved for two years. Two years! An eternity for someone who had not got two whole hours of it in her life.  'A whiff of rosewater is enough...' On Makar Sankranti when the kites soar high, Sanaz' wings are brutally clipped. She is found dead in her room and what follows is a trail of questions hiding violence in their midst; of corrosive human behaviour. The ugliness and degenerate behaviour of the many a char