THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Featured in a shortfilm titled ‘Niramulla Nakshatrangal’, made a couple of years back by shortfilm maker K Swaminathan in association with Sarva Siksha Abhiyan. Back then, the differently-abled Jyotish was a Class II student at Vazhamuttam Government School. Now a Class V student, Jyotish seems to have come out of his shell.
Jyotish was one of the star performers at the launch of the Cultural Organisation of Differently Abled Children, an initiative by the Thiruvananthapuram district wing of SSA. The event had a number of cultural programmes put together by the differently abled, and the class V student’s performance was one of them.Being born without limbs, his limitions do not seem to bother the boy. Jyothish loves to play the keyboard. Given a chance, he wouldn’t mind dancing, with a few small moves.
Missing a major portion of each of his limbs, the differently abled boy was the subject of the 30 minutes long short film ‘Niramulla Nakshatrangal’.
The shortfilm was made with a clear aim in mind. “The film was made to offer an insight into the trauma parents of such differently abled children go through,”says Swaminathan about the film.
The fictional film ‘Niramulla Nakshatrangal’ showed the difficulty the boy’s mother has to face in bringing him up. Left by his alcoholic father, the boy and his mother are left to fend for themselves. At one point, the mother is finally driven to suicide. However, they are discovered, after which he gets the opportunity to learn.
Elaborating Jyotish’s interest in dancing and playing the keybord, his mother Sheeba says, “ It was during his summer vacations after his class III examinations that he expressed a desire to learn the keyboard.” An average performer in studies, the boy has already mastered a few songs through his keyboard.
Now a part of CODAC, the student will form other talented special needs children from Government Schools within the city who will be further trained to hone their skills. CODAC is a platform to encourage differently abled kids to come out of their shell, states Sreekumaran, Project Officer SSA. He adds, “We want to make these children realise that they don’t have to wothdraw themselves into a shell. It is an effort to bring them to the mainstream.”