Disability no deterrent, Jawali woman follows her passion

Writes poems, scripts for short films

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Awarded at film fest

–Kavya Varsha (28) has scripted short films like ‘Pocket Money’, ‘Pillow’, ‘Doctor Hi Banena Hai’ and ‘Corona versus Life’.

–Her recently scripted short film ‘Pillow’, released in February, was conferred a Special Jury Award in the Short Film Festival in Benguluru.

–Her poetry book ‘Neelgagan ko Chhune Do’, comprising 116 poems, was launched by Rajya Sabha member Indu Goswami in March.

Rajiv Mahajan

Nurpur, August 1

Kavya Varsha (28), a differently abled woman who is confined to bed since her birth and hails from Darkati village in Jawali subdivision of Kangra district, has converted her disability into opportunity. She is inspiring differently abled people of the area to hone their hidden skills. Her message to them is to “earn laurels and not sympathy”.

Varsha has a passion for writing poems and scripts for short films. So far, she has scripted short films like ‘Pocket Money’, ‘Pillow’, ‘Doctor Hi Banena Hai’ and ‘Corona versus Life’. Her recently scripted short film ‘Pillow’, released in February this year, has earned tremendous likes on YouTube. It was also conferred a Special Jury Award in the Short Film Festival in Benguluru. She has scripted touching short film stories with poignant moments of childhood days.

Her poetry book ‘Neelgagan ko Chhune Do’, comprising 116 poems, was launched by Rajya Sabha member Indu Goswami in March this year. Her song “O jane jaan” was also launched in May.

Notably, Kavya, never got a chance to go to school for education. Only the index finger of her left hand is fit to work. Learning and writing has been her passion since her childhood. Significantly, she faced her challenge to learn and write in an innovative way.

Kavya, who suffers from spinal muscular atrophy, said she had learnt reading and writing in English and Hindi from Google and YouTube. She said her smart phone had played a key role in writing short film stories, poems and songs. She said she was also learning French.

During her childhood, her father who is an ex-Army man, did his best to provide her good treatment but she could not be cured. Kavya credits her mother Pawan Kumari for helping her in following her passion, besides short film director Eklavya from Nurpur, Virender Sharma and Vijay Kumar Puri from Chandigarh. Intriguingly, no government agency has come forward to extend any kind of support to her. Nevertheless, she has set an example for others by following her passion despite unfavourable circumstances.

01nur1p, photo caption. “Kavya Varsha using her smart mobile phone in learning and writing.”

01nur2p. photo caption, “The bed confined Kavya is being fed by her mother,” Tribune photos.