Specially-abled people on wheelchairs groove to zumba beats

To say it was inspiring would be an understatement — the extraordinary energy, the palpable enthusiasm and the urge to learn, was something that was hard to miss.
For the first time, Mumbai witnessed wheel-chair bound people participating in a zumba fitness event. It is not every day that you see specially-abled paraplegics and quadriplegics, groove to beats and have fun on the floor.
Zumba master Sucheta Pal and Neha Vatsala showed the participants some energetic moves that got them in the mood immediately.
“It was phenomenal. Not even once did we have to encourage them, like we have to do with general people (people who have their both legs intact) all the time. That was something that hit me — people like us take what we have for granted and these special people showed that they just made the most with whatever they had,” said Sucheta.
Interestingly, not only were these participants from Mumbai, but also from Beed, Igatpuri, Amravati, and Lonavala. Around 108 people gathered at the venue on a rainy day. One look at the enthusiastic specially-abled participants, and you know that the saying, ‘Where there is a will, there is a way,’ holds true.
A member from the organising team, Dr Ketna Mehta has been wheel-chair bound since the last 23 years, after she had a paragliding accident. Her doctorate in rehabilitation helped her to work for the specially-abled with therapy, workshops and counselling to help them come out of the trauma of being in a wheel-chair for life. In a bid to raise awareness about spinal cord injury, she came up with this idea of a special fitness class and also to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the foundation that is dedicated to people with spinal cord injuries.

“Since we are wheel-chair bound, we have to specially invest in exercise, and a fitness regime like this was something that we had not experienced before. Through this session, we want to tell specially-abled people that nothing can stop them.”
Fitness trainers Krishna Dalal, Trisha Gujjar, Estalita Pinto and Nidhi Ved came up with some cool moves that ensured the participants were totally involved in the event.
One of the participants Mohammed Soni expressed his happiness by saying, “It was an amazing experience. I felt my hands were a little loose after it got over. This group therapy and the electrifying music made us feel energetic.”