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Monday 26 August 2013

I spent 20 hours on wheelchair: Guru Syed Sallauddin Pasha

He is a pioneer of "therapeutic theatre", who has created masterpieces such as the Ramayana, has choreographed Sufi dance on wheelchairs for people with disabilities, is a National Award winner and a Guinness Record holder. Guru Syed Sallauddin Pasha talks about innovating the dance therapy, challenges along the route and "delayed recognition" in India.



 Guru Syed Sallauddin Pasha

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Mixing dance and healing I come from a family of healers. Treating people has been part of our culture, passed on for generations. My forefathers were the official healers to the kings of Mysore. So, naturally, it was passed down to me as well. But as a child, I was also interested in dance. I was six when I started learning Kathak. I distinctly remember this particular incident when I was barely 13 or 14 years old, when I started teaching various dance expressions and movements to the children who were brought to my grandfather for treatment. I would simply spend hours with them. My grandfather asked me one day, 'Yeh kya kar rahe ho inke saath ki jo ab tak kuch hila nahin sakta tha, woh express kar pa raha hai'. While I would do that very unconsciously, I then realised the power of dance in healing.



Integration of differently abled In our country, people treat the differently abled as untouchables. Agar koi wheelchair par hai, toh log usse sympathise aur pity karenge. There is still no awareness, despite the fact that there are so many people with disabilities around us. Just to understand what they felt and went through, I used to spend almost 18-20 hours on a wheelchair. I also realised then that very sadly, most of the roads and places in India are not disabled-friendly.



Challenges along the route There was no referral material that I could refer to. I had to innovate, recreate and adopt new methods. It was a Herculean task. I also stayed at Istanbul and Helsinki only to learn the nuances of Sufi dance. Ek mahine ki neend udh gayi thi! It was also very hard to convince parents of disabled, to allow their children to learn dance. They were hesitant because of the way our society treats the disabled. In my village, Anekal, which is close to Bangalore, I used to personally go to each family with a disabled person and talk to them about how it is possible for a differently abled person to dance and that it has a healing power.



Breaking mindsets When people see the performances of the differently abled, they are shell-shocked, because until then, the wheelchair was a sign of disability. But after they have danced sitting on it, the same wheelchair becomes a symbol of strength. I remember when my students had performed Bharatnatyam on wheels non-stop for over three hours in front of huge exponents of classical dance in Chennai. They were all shocked when they saw the performance.


Awards and records I received recognition outside before I did in India. I received awards from institutions in the US in 1988 and 90s. In India, it was only in 2007 that I received the National Award for Outstanding Performances in the field of empowerment of persons with disabilities from the then President of India, Pratibha Patil. I also made a Guinness World Record and a Limca Record for creating 100 dance theatre productions and 10,000 performances by disabled persons across the world. People create records to make a name, but I ended up doing the same without realising that I was the first one.


Source :  TOI , 25th August 2013

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