Specially-abled youth resolve to dance Garba this Navratri

While the city is all set to celebrate the nine-day festival, Navratri, people are all set with their dance moves to grove with Dandiya and Garba. However, these three have some special moves to show. Meet Jesal Shah, Siddhi Shah and Dhaval Shah; all specially-abled yet, practicing and going to participate for Garba, this season.

Siddhi Shah, senior executive at Airtel, is a full-of-life girl who is nonchalant about her disability and fulfills her dream of dancing, while on wheelchair."It makes me feel motivated and rejuvenated. I don't remember a time when I actually did not feel happy on a dull day after practicing. Earlier, I used to only watch people play Garba and feel bad internally. I often wished I could dance, but because of my legs, I couldn't, of course, get up." However, she added, "it was the first time, I actually took up classes, Hardik told me that he wouldn't be able to teach me all the steps but would love to teach me a few steps at least. That was the beginning of my dancing. There was no looking back after that."

On the question of awkwardness, she said, "If I had to give a message to people like me, I would just say, if you feel awkward thinking people are going to stare at you, I say, leave them be, take the first step towards it, and you will never regret."

While Dhaval Shah, who got inspired by his friend Siddhi and started learning Garba recently, said, "I had never thought I will learn Garba, I always used to go to watch it, however, never thought that I would actually get the courage to play Garba. When I saw Siddhi play Garba with such grace, I was overwhelmed. Hence, I decided to learn it along with her. Today, I feel happy that I pursued to learn Garba. Now, at least, I too can join in a few ways with my friends."

While Jesal Shah, who is partially deaf and is an event manager has been learning garba for the past one year and does not let her disability doesn't come in her way. Jesal has become a part of the same institute where she used learn. "I was always fond of dancing, even though I am partially deaf, I was always motivated to dance. I am now happy that I am a part of the institute that taught me."

Hardik Mehta, founder of Raas Leela institute, taught all the three of them without charging them, says, "Siddhi was the one who approached me. However, when I came to know she was on wheelchair, I had a hiccup but her self-motivation drove me to teach her. Hence, we worked it out for her. All the movements for them are hand-centric and as far as Jesal was concerned, even though she had a listening issue, she was enthusiastic and hence, it worked out great for her too. I am glad I could teach them. It was their enthusiasm that drove me into teaching them.