Flipping the narrative: Attend this performance reading of fairy tales retold by women with disability

A moment from a previous session

All of us are familiar with the formula of a fairy tale; a damsel in distress meets a knight in shining armour, they fight a heinous villain, encounter a couple of crises and then settle down peacefully into a ‘happily ever after'. From drama to romance, fairy tales have all the essential elements to keep you hooked except that their lack of representation ignores a big fraction of the society and their side of the story. Flipping these cultural clichés on its face is, And they lived…ever after, an anthology of 13 fairy tales, retold by women with disability. A performance reading and book discussion of the same at Nehru Centre Library will explore two stories from the book, and bring audiences closer to the lived experiences of these women.

The illustrated cover

"I was gifted the book by a friend, and I loved the stories in it. The ones we have chosen for the performance are Mumbai-based contributors - Parita Dholakia's Beatmatching Beethoven and Kanika Agarwal's Deaf Snow White. Both these stories are interesting in their portrayal of the experiences of people who are hearing-impaired. Agarwal's performance piece incorporates sign language in its narrative, and we will be using sign language during the performance as well," Diiva Dhanoya, artist and performance director tells us.

Parita Dholakia

Is there a particular reason why the organisers decided on a performance reading of the stories, we ask? "Every fortnight, we try and reach out to authors for something that is not a run-of-the-mill book. This appealed to me as it was written by physically-challenged women. They have tried to retell fairy tales differently," shares Arati Desai, librarian and documentation officer, Nehru Centre. The session will be conducted by Dhanoya along with actor Leena Wadhwa. Popular culture has been ableist for most of history, running a cycle of narratives that either overlook the experiences of people with disability or portray them as helpless or morally corrupt. Dholakia, one of the writers in the book, and also an individual with late onset hearing loss, shares, "There is a lot of social discomfort when we start categorising those who are born or those who develop a disability as ‘disabled'. We do not find much representation in day-to-day walks of life, especially children stories. My story is about a hearing-impaired Rapunzel who feels trapped and seeks to engage with the world outside. Is there a happy ending? Yes. But the story also showcases that you get to define your own happy ending."

Diiva Dhanoya performs during an earlier reading of the book

Put together by Rising Flames, an NGO working at the intersection of gender and disability, the book is a labour of love for the writers. "A differently-abled child (or even an adult) may not feel as much of an outlier if there are stories where the main character has issues similar to them. Feelings of belonging matter. Stories can help shape our understanding of the world, our perspectives, identities, and even behaviour," Dholakia concludes.

ON December 7; 4.30 pm onwards.
AT Nehru Centre Library, Nehru Centre, Dr Annie Besant Road, Worli.
EMAIL nehrucentrelibrary@gmail.com (to register)
FREE