| Ajay Sharma is a tired man. As he should be. The 42-year-old immigration consultant is determined that the disability fest he's single-handedly organised for the World Disability Week sees at least a flicker of light, if nothing else. | |||||
| Even as you're reading this article, he's keeping his fingers crossed: hoping that some corporate house will come forward to support what he calls "a genuine and a much-needed cause". | |||||
| Is he asking for too much? | |||||
| It seems he is, especially as one looks at some of the e-mails that have been posted to him by corporate honchos and a sizeable number of multinational companies. Forget sponsorship, one corporate company (that has a billing of nearly Rs 5,000 crore) has refused to purchase the 10-odd tickets (each priced at Rs 500) that Sharma had requested it to buy. | |||||
| Of the 1,700 tickets for the dance-theatre festival that will be spread over three days, Sharma has been able to sell not more than 100 tickets. "I have a list of people who want to be invited but don't want to spend a paisa on buying a ticket," he cribs. | |||||
| Then there are stories of how Sharma tried convincing government officials to grant him an entertainment benefit tax for the shows. Was he successful? "No, I had to give them 20 per cent of the tax," he says shrugging his shoulders. "We knew we wanted to support the cause of the disabled but we just didn't know where to begin," he says. | |||||
| The efforts to start this fest saw Sharma taking another journey altogether wherein even the basic requirements for the disabled needed to be fulfilled. "We had to procure 25 wheelchairs for Rs 25,000 since the ones from various NGOs were in such a sorry state," he reveals, adding, "It was necessary after a few children fell off the wheelchairs while rehearsing." | |||||
| For someone who has worked in the area of rehabilitating street children with NGO Chetna, "A shift towards disability," he says, "was crucial and imperative." Sadly, it was also a reminder of how he had failed miserably in rehabilitating street children: "No one was willing to give them any work even after we spent a year giving them vocational training in different areas. Today, a majority of them are back on the streets," he says. While his work with street children continues, he decided to do something a liitle more concrete. | |||||
| Which is why he organised a week-long fest called Possible. The show, which kicked off this Friday, will bring together a festival of films, theatre productions and paintings. "The high point of all these events will be to project the terribly underutilised talents of the disabled," he says. | |||||
| That no one has come forward to support this cause doesn't deter him from promoting his cause: every paisa that has gone into organising this event has been invested by Sharma. "I'm sure corporates want to wait and watch... I have a gut feeling that next year many corporates will come forward to support me," he says confidently. Nearly Rs 17 lakh has been invested in Possible and most of the money has been pumped in by Sharma himself. "Besides Abhinav Consultants, which has a billing of Rs 2.5 crore, I also manage a Rs 1.5-crore events management company called Direct Events. It's from these two companies that the money has been invested for the disability fest." | |||||
| The groundwork began nearly three months ago when Sharma got in touch with Syed Sallauddin Pasha, a theatre veteran who has directed nearly 90 dance-theatre productions with physically and mentally challenged children all over the world. | |||||
| "Theatre is therapeutic and frankly, both Ajay and I want to bring this kind of theatre in India," says Pasha, even as he listens attentively to 15-year-old Gulshan, a physically disabled youngster who according to Pasha, "is my assistant director and our hero". Having worked for nearly two decades with special children, Pasha feels, "In Europe, theatre provides job opportunities for the disabled." He'd like to replicate a similar model in India with Sharma's help. Is this possible? Sharma chips in, "We've taken a very small step, this is just a beginning but hopefully we'll have a sizeable number of companies and government organisations who will give these kids a fair chance." | |||||
| A website has been created especially for the event and Sharma says he's getting an encouraging response from people who are clicking on it. On the website www.disabilitytheatre.com one can view sample videos of plays along with stage and technical requirements and other specifications required for shows. | |||||
| "It's a professional site created for the disabled community and for organisations who want them to perform shows." He's hopeful that glamour-driven Bollywood shows and disability plays will co-exist when corporates adapt this as a serious social responsibility strategy. | |||||
| Sharma is adamant he will organise this fest as part of the annual disability week calender. "My kids rehearse for almost 60 hours every week. I will not let their efforts go in vain. I'll see to it that I have a packed house of people for whom my children will present their work," he says. | |||||
| Shouldn't you be there too? | |||||
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