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Have you ever heard of this Olympian-like competition for disabled people? It’s in India for the first time ever since it first began.
Why is it that when we talk of disabled people, it’s the disability and not the ability that’s talked about? This is one of the many reasons why the Abilympics are so important worldwide. And for the first time ever in its history, the Abilympics are in India. In fact, they’re already underway with the regional rounds under swing across the four corners of the country. These rounds lead up to the Nationals in November 2002 and the international finale in 2003 - both in New Delhi.
Chennai’s very own Vidyasagar (formerly the Spastics Society of India) kicked off the regional rounds of the Abilympics by hosting it from October 12-14 at the Student Activity Centre, IIT.
When I first heard of the Abilympics, I assumed that we were talking about the Paralympics, the Olympics of sports for disabled people across the world. It’s not, but its aim is similar: to bring together disabled people on a common platform to showcase their abilities and skills. As Rajul Padmanabhan, Deputy Director, Vidyasagar, said: “It’s basically a talent search.”
Says Poonam Natarajan, Director, Vidyasagar: “Disabled people face two major problems: social isolation and low expectations from society at large. We need to make people aware of their abilities too, change people’s attitudes and make them understand that disabled people also have abilities.
In this sense, it’s a move away from the medical model of disability where one had to find a cure for disability. “We were hoping for about 50 people per state; when we began publicising the Abilympics, we were taken aback by the response,” says Ms. Natarajan. There were 575 people, in all, expected from all over the four states!
And the three-day event was a colourful maelstrom of activity, confusion and laughter and of course, last minute panic galore about missing judges/participants!!
On the first day, there was a master chef demonstrating different types of icing after having judged the cake decorating competition. He swirled around a cake on the palm of one hand with great dexterity and bent low to show a wheelchair user exactly how the icing was done as the table was just a mite bit too high for her to watch the proceedings comfortably. Unfortunately, the cakes disappeared soon after the competition never to be seen again by a disappointed audience!
A little further up on the stage were the chess masters deep in thought. Not that they had much opportunity to do so as constant
announcements/ updates kept disrupting them. There were several visually-impaired players amongst them. Watching them play was a fascinating experience: their hands flew over the boards, memorising positions and plotting out moves in the same breath.
There were 33 events in all, over the three-day show. The events were as diverse as block printing and cartooning, water colours and flower arrangements, cane technology and embroidery, computer-related events and poster painting, innovative waste reuse and tie and dye work…
Lots of volunteers who had never before interacted with disabled people in any way also found they had a lot to learn and a lot of stereotypes to try and debunk. For example, the fact that disabled people are first and foremost, PEOPLE, also capable of possessing a sense of humour is often something that may not occur when you see a wheelchair user often incapable of taking care of his/her basic needs. One such volunteer came back exhilarated by her encounter with the winner of the cartoon competition who couldn’t believe she had come in first. Why? Because she’d drawn a caricature of Jayalalitha and had made her a thin, beanpole-like figure!
Like I said, it’s the ability to laugh, to cry, to express, to feel, to think and above all, to have eternal optimism that matters. Not the disability. The lyrics of the song, ‘We’ specially composed for the inaugural ceremony of the Abilympics by Dipti Bhatia, who heads one of the sections at Vidyasagar and happens to be visually-impaired summed up some of those feelings so aptly:
Chorus:
Let’s join together today
And to the world shall we say
To be a part and not stand apart
Is to be really included, included, included….
To have a friend, la la la, not just a companion… (CHORUS)
To feel needed, la la la, not just be a person with needs… (CHORUS)
Susan Alexander
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