It would take us a lot of time before we say that our society has become mature, civilized, and sensitive towards each other. Bullying people for their skin color, their weight, and height, sometimes jokingly, is common. But ragging someone for his rare medical condition is something only heartless people could do.
17-year-old Lalit Patidar, from the small Nandleta village in Madhya Pradesh, has been bullied and mocked by people around throughout his life.
His only fault was that he is among the handful of people in the world who suffer from a rare condition called the ‘werewolf syndrome’, reported NDTV.
Medically known as hypertrichosis, it’s a condition that causes excessive hair growth all over a person’s body including his face. Patidar was diagnosed with this condition when he was just 6 years old. And since then he has been ridiculed for looking different from others.
He was also nicknamed “monkey man” and bullied in school by classmates who thought he will bite them.
“I come from a normal family, my father is a farmer, and I am currently a senior in high school studying in 12th grade and at the same time I help my father in his farming work,” said Patidar while sharing about his family background.
Talking about his rare condition, the teenager added, “I have had this hair my whole life.”
“My parents say the doctor shaved me at birth but I didn’t really notice anything was different about me until I was around six or seven years old. That’s when I first took notice that the hair was growing all over my body like no one else I knew.”
Lalit added, “Since then I have found out it is because I have a condition called hypertrichosis. It is rare and as far as I know, only 50 people in the world have been affected by this. There is no history of hair growth conditions in my family, I am the only one who has this disease,” Times Now quoted him saying.
Even though the young lad has accepted his truth and the disease with age, his parents worry a lot about him.
“Small children used to get scared seeing me, and as a child, I did not know why. As I grew up I realized that my whole body had hair and that was not like everyone else. Kids were worried I would come back to bite them like an animal.”
The teenager tries his best to control the overgrown hair but in vain. Apparently, there is no cure for Lalit’s condition.
“I do trim it if I feel it is getting too long. It is like head hair, it will continue to grow, I have no other way to manage it.”
Despite facing so many challenges in his life, Lalit gives it a positive swing and thinks that he is blessed to be one in a million. “I am different from common humans in a good way, I am unique.”
“I got to learn many things during my journey, most importantly I got to learn that I am one in a million, I should never give up, and live life to the fullest I always want to move forward and be happy. I am different, but most of the time our differences are our greatest strengths and I am proud to be me.”
We sure need to introspect a lot and take cognizance of our actions towards others as a society. As for Lalit, kudos to him for staying so positive about his condition and fighting everything like a boss!