Walking into Sameer's apartment in suburban Andheri, it is tough to identify Taha in the bunch of children playing in the living room. Gradually, all the kids but one disappear into the house.
Nothing about the bespectacled boy who remains in the living room tells you that he has been fighting a painful condition for almost a decade-and-a-half.
There is a calm about him that is beyond his age and his eyes, clear even behind his thin glasses, give away nothing. It is hard to believe that these are the eyes of a boy who has been staring death squarely in the face all his life.
Taha, you are convinced even before he says a word, is one of those who see no merit in mere survival.
Soon, you get proof that he really is one of those who thrive, whatever the odds may be.
"Sometime back, he had to choose between the matriculation syllabus, which is considered easy and Cambridge, which is tough and for which the syllabus and questions come from England. He chose Cambridge and though there is a marginal dip in his marks, he has been doing really well," says Saleem, who has a real estate business in Karachi.
Taha, his parents say, has not only managed to ensure that his scores never went below 70 per cent all his life, he has also won awards for being the best behaved student, the favourite student of the teachers, and for book-keeping. On the basis of merit, Taha has been consistently securing scholarships.
Good achievements for any child, but these take a different dimension when you take into consideration that Thalassemia is a condition where blood cells die easily and Taha required a blood transfusion every 20 days.
Earlier Slide Show: From India, with love
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