Arvind had Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, (DMD) a muscle wasting illness which is 100% fatal. Arvind was diagnosed when he was 3 and half on the 21st July 1999. Arvind was 13 years old, when he lost his courageous battle with DMD. He was so strong and never felt pain and I mean that literally as the doctors were amazed by his strength but most of all his dignity when he knew he was dying. Even then he never felt sorry for himself or complained. In fact he decided what he wanted to do during his last two months like a superheros party and xmas party. He touched so many peoples hearts. Once people met Arvind they had to love him as his personality was so touching and warm. Arvind maintained a quiet dignity in the face of adversity no matter what it was. Whether it was when he stopped walking or when he knew he was dying. Arvind showed a maturity beyond his years yet he was so innocent, pure and untouched by this world’s depravity and this rare quality in a person is what made him touch so many people and leave his mark on them for ever. There should be more like Arvind as when most people in Arvind’s position would feel sorry for themselves, he would be disheartened but then rise above it and carry on with life. He was so upbeat that we forgot the sadness that was on our minds about DMD. Everyone was amazed with this young man who had such courage, a lovely sense of humour and was so patient with all that he had to cope with. Arvind had a positive attitude and this helped him deal with whatever his illness threw at him and he had such willpower too. Arvind was selfless and always thought about other people, even before himself. He would carry the weight of the world on his shoulders as he would worry about everything and everyone. Arvind made it so easy for people and us to be round him as he was always happy. Arvind loved life and was always happy and he wanted people around him to be happy. Arvind taught so many people what the true meaning of life was and this is why he touched so many lives. He lived life to the full and never let his illness stop him from doing what he wanted to do. He always saw the good in people even when they had been horrible to him. He saw the positive in a negative. Most people loved his smile and someone said “A smile once seen, never forgotten”. Arvind had a big smile and a warm heart. “Love shone from Arvind, warm and radiant like the sun” someone said and that is so true. Arvind loved ginger tea and he loved red cola bottles and not any, only the ones from Woolworths or the cinema. Arvind loved food as he became older and loved anything from spaghetti Bolognese to chicken curry to lentils. He loved Fab ice cream, twix, Mars Bar, Rolos, Bon Bon biscuits and pink wafers. When he was a baby he would love eating a plate of broccoli on its own. When Arvind was younger he loved the Ice cream factory, at Pizza Hut where u can eat as many times as you want ,with sprinklers and smarties. Arvind also loved chicken soup and put pasta in it too.and he only loved good old plain vanilla, not the ones like Carte d’ or “with the black bits Arvind used to say. He like me had to have food in different bowls/plates like if he was eating chicken nuggets that had to be in one bowel and the ketchup in another. Fussy people would say, I would call that clever as his nuggets would get either soggy by the ketchup or just smothered in them. Yuk! We had a daily weekly routine of Monday library, Tuesday cinema, Thursday swimming and Friday youth club. Arvind loved getting comics from the library and he made friends with the staff who would always come up and chat to him. We were always out. Arvind loved Golders Hill Park and feeding the ducks and having a picnic with his cheese and cucumber sandwiches with no crusts and then a chocolate chip ice cream at their café. Arvind loved collecting stuff teddies of cartoon characters which he loved to play with or take on with him when in hospital or on holiday. He also collected cartoon characters figures which he would play for hours. He had an amazing collection. He also loved buying the new Simpson comic weekly. Arvind loved using his beads to make many different pattern shapes and playing with play dough and cooking. He also has an impressive DVD collection of Disney and The Simpson’s. Arvind had a vivid imagination and loved playing cops and “Baddies”. In swimming we would have to swim one end to the other as the baddie was coming to get us. He loved role play. Arvind would never watch the same film again or repeat episodes of anything,. The only exception was the Simpson’s. He would watch them again and again. Arvind loved watching Indian dramas on Zee TV which we would have to tape if we were not there and understood Hindi by watching them like I did. He also was a movie buff and would watch anything from x-men to The incredible to watching Indian movies. Arvind’s favourite actor was Amitabh Bachan and he loved watching all his old movies from the 70s and singing the songs from them like “My name is Anthony Gonslaves”. Arvind loved any type of music. His favourite song was ‘Hero’ by Enrique Iglesias, followed by If Tomorrow never comes’ by Ronan Keating. Arvind’s other favourite programmes were the X-factor, Dance India Dance, Big Cook Little Cook, Holby city He also loved watching cartoons whether it was Sponge Bob or the X-men or Scooby Doo. He loved watching the Pop channel which was a cartoon channel on sky. Arvind’s favourite colour was red, then orange. He loved bright colours, but not plain, dull colours like white, black or grey etc. He wanted to ride in a Limo and that had to be pink because black and white was dull for him and we saw the xmas lights and went for a meal too. Arvind loved xmas. It was his thing and he made it so magical. We would have to go to midnight mass as he loved the Christmas carols and we had to leave mince pies, carrots, milk and water for Santa and reindeer. Arvind also had an advent calendar which he would open with his Didi as she had one too. He would get so excited. We travelled a lot because of Arvind. We went to Euro Disney in April 2002 for four days which was fun . We went to Florida through Make A Wish as Arvind wish was to go to Disney World. We stayed at Give Kids The World which was like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and it is really does give kids the world and their family. This was Arvind best time in his whole life. He did not want to leave and on the plane home he had a very high temperature and was being sick. Florida was magical and everything was accessible! This made Arvind felt he belonged and was part of the society and that being in a wheelchair was not a hassle to people. Arvind also travelled to India. His first trip was when he was 4months old and he went 6 times to Chandigarh, the capital of Punjab. We also did two tours of India. One trip was up North in Oct-Nov O6 and we visited Delhi and Jaipur where we had an elephant ride and Argra where we saw the sunset on the Taj Mahal and The Golden Temple in Amritsar where we saw the sunrise at 4am in the morning. We then did a trip down south of India in Dec-Jan 07-08 and went to Mumbai and saw my favourite film star of all time Salman Khan. We went to his home and had a cup of tea with him. He is like Brad Pitt of India and is in Madame Tussads in London. Thanks to Arvind this happened. We also went to the Film studios which is not open to the public and met stars from dramas and saw the set of Om Shanti Om film. Arvind was supposed to meet Amitabh Bachan there but due to his mother passing away the day we arrived we did not but we got VIP treatment at the studios as we were introduced as his family. We then went to Hyderabad and saw the famous musical water foundations and then to Bangalore. All of this was amazing. If Arvind knew the person he would chat for England. Arvind’s favourite words were “big hug”, “Love you too much” and he loved learning new words, especially that sounded silly or were long. Anyone who knew Arvind knew that the conversation would be round food first such as what he was eating and ask what that person was eating etc. Arvind liked being an observer rather than the centre of attention and when you though he was not listening he was. He would listen and watch everything around him and take it in even if he was doing something like playing with his toys. He was very polite and hated dirt on himself. Arvind had such a good memory that he would remember anything for example we would see a person of a drama and he would remember where we had seen them before. He would remember the last time we ate something what we were doing and what day it was etc. All these things we say about Arvind is not because he is our son or brother but he was an unique person who left his mark on everyone he met. An incredible human being and we love you so much and miss you every second of the day Arvind.xxxx