Music Heals

Thud! Crash! That was all and then we could only feel the falling of the car into the gallows….to hell probably! Was there anyone to even hear our screams ? But the screams were reflexive. Then suddenly the car hit something probably a rock jutting out and it stopped falling. We were hanging on a rock of the hill we had fallen off!

It was 4:00 am of a cool summer day. We had been driving to Manali. Four of us were besties and we were super excited an evening before as we had completed our graduation and we had thought of celebrating in Manali . We had stopped a few minutes back to use the washroom and getting attracted by the beautiful landscape we had clicked pictures even though it was dark. We had not known that only after a few minutes of drive we would have a collision with a truck and fall off the hill with the sound of shattering glass and crashing metal to hang from a rock !

Luckily we all were alive though badly wounded. I had severe neck and back injuries and had fallen unconscious. When I woke up, I was in the hospital. We had collided with an army truck and those army people had made sure to save each one of us. I was saved but my spinal chord had injuries leading to paralysis of my lower body. The doctors profecied ” Varun you will never be able to walk”. “So that’s the end of my life. My dreams of becoming a deejay will never be fulfilled.” I thought dejected and shattered. I fell into a pit of misery.

I lost my zest for life. Every night I had nightmares of my fall and I would wake up screaming. My friends and relatives gave up all hopes on me. But then I read about Sir Paul Johnson the only deejay on wheel chair in the world. His biography was the turning point in my life. I started learning piano at home. Music calmed my soul. It healed my soul and brought solace to my turbulent life.

I applied in a deejaying school in Delhi but faced rejection due to my disability. That was the beginning of a series of rejections but I did not give up. I knew I had to make a come back for my dead father who nurtured my interest in music when alive, for my mourning mother and for myself. I still remember that I couldn”t make it to interviews because those buildings were not wheel chair friendly.

Three years after my accident I finally got to perform at Kitty Su, an upscale night club of Lalit hotel, in New Delhi. There I was spotted by Keshav Suri, Executive Director of The Lalit Suri Hospitality Group. He offered the gig to be the resident deejay at the nightclub. From there my life took off as DJ Aamish. I toured the whole country performing in all Kitty Su clubs. Everywhere I went I had my Microsoft Surface Book 2 as my constant companion. It was my portable studio on which I made music.

When I am behind the console, I am the man in charge. I create an electrifying ambience and everyone jives to the music I play and they want me to go on without stopping for hours. No one ever finds out that I am on wheel chair because I enjoy the music as much as they do. Today I am the only deejay on wheel chair in India !

“No one wants their identity or their potential to be perceived in the context of their disability. I speak on behalf of everyone who has a disability, everywhere in the world. We yearn for inclusion.” ( Deejay Aamish )