Indian film star's autistic son barred from plane (extract)

BANGALORE, India: The autistic son of the Tamil actor, Prithviraj, and his wife, Beena, was prevented from boarding a flight at Bangalore airport on October 4.
       Ahed and his parents were stopped at the security gate of Bangalore airport and a CISF (security forces) inspector, Bhavesh Kumar, told them that Ahed could not board the Air Deccan flight to Chennai because he looked different. Furious at this insinuation, Prithviraj asked the officer to explain the rules under which he was stopping his son. "The officer merely replied that there are rules, but could not quote any. He kept saying my son could be a threat to other passengers," Prithviraj told the Hindustan Times.
       "I started filming the argument and he kept blocking the camera lens. We had to argue for 30 minutes before the officer relented," Prithivraj said.
       While his parents fought back vehemently, little Ahed kissed his mother repeatedly. Beena interpreted it as his way of saying: "It is all right. Don't worry."
       This was not the first time Prithviraj had had to deal with such insensitive remarks about his son. An official at Delhi airport once asked Prithviraj if his son was mad and the actor shot back: "You seem to be mad."
       "We have never encountered such problems in Europe or other Asian countries," recalled Ahed's mother, Beena, who runs a school for autistic children … 

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