Every wheelchair is trained towards the target. The focus is palpable on the court. The basketball post is as high as ever, but that’s barely a deterrent. The ball sails across and makes it neatly through the hoop. Cheers erupt.
To be fair, cheers would have erupted even if the ball had barely grazed the basket. Because, victory was being measured differently that Sunday afternoon.
Scores of men and women, from their twenties to their middle ages, had gathered to just break ice and make friends — and perhaps something more — at Inclov’s Social Spaces meet-up in RA Puram.
All about camaraderie
The event was all about camaraderie at Rush, the indoor sports arena that hosted the meet-up. Gunny bags made for makeshift ramps, and volunteers stood ready to lend a hand or an ear. Trays of sandwiches and juice were always floating by. Everybody took to the wheels for basketball, no matter what their special need, or lack thereof.
The wheelchairs — specially designed for para-sports that demand hands-free mobility — were specially brought in by members of the Tamil Nadu Wheelchair Basketball Association.
Led by Matilda Fonceca, the state team was happy to help and guide everyone with the sport. Participants included a good mix of those with disabilities and those without.
“The mix is usually at least 70%-30%. There are usually an encouraging number of people who have no qualms dating a specially abled person,” says Shankar Srinivasan, who co-founded the initiative with Kalyani Khona years ago.
What began as an agency in 2014, developed into an app in 2016, and has now spilled back over to the real world, across multiple cities, as a platform that ensures that disability is not a deterrent to forming human connections. “There was no such service before this, and we weren’t sure whether that was because nobody had realised the need for it, or because nobody needed it at all,” recalls Srinivasan.
Taking a gamble
They took the gamble anyway, and it clearly paid off: Inclov has been organising meet-ups in Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai, Kolkata and Mumbai, and plans expand to cities like Hyderabad and Jaipur as well. This is their third meet-up in Chennai over the last two years.
Sunday’s sports-themed event was Inclov’s first themed meet in Chennai. Itserved yet another purpose, that of publicising the paralympic sport Boccia. Inclov got in touch with the organisation Ektha — which has been training and spreading the sport across nine districts in Tamil Nadu for 1.5 years — and its members were only too happy to help.
“I’m really enjoying myself,” says a wheelchair-bound Kumaran, taking a break from the games, “I made new friends today, and met old ones in a comfortable atmosphere. Simply speaking, I have been waiting for something like this.”