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From the June 2004 Scientific American Magazine | 0 comments

A Transparent Enigma ( Preview )

Low-functioning autistics are not supposed to joke, write or creatively express a rich inner life. But then there's Tito Mukhopadhyay

By Madhusree Mukerjee   

 
TITO MUKHOPADHYAY: ILLUMINATING AUTISM
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At 7 a.m. in a nondescript apartment in Hollywood, Calif., Tito Mukhopadhyay is hunched over his breakfast bowl, spooning milk and cereal into his mouth. His eyes flit around and his hand shakes. When he is finished, his mother, Soma Mukhopadhyay, pulls him off the chair and manhandles him into the shower, dashing in from time to time when he yells for assistance. Finally Tito emerges, dressed, to bend over Soma's tiny frame so she can comb his thick black hair. Abruptly he charges out the door and half-walks, half-runs down the hallways until he is outside. Golden sunshine on his face, he flaps and spins his hands with absorption.



Later I ask him: "Would you like to be normal?" In rough but legible script, he scrawls: "Why should I be Dick and not Tito?"

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