“In a comic, you know how you can tell who the arch-villain’s
going to be? He’s the exact opposite of the hero…” – Mr Glass.
For fans of the 2000 superhero flick,
‘Unbreakable’, the uncanny equation between the film’s supervillain Mr Glass,
and real-life child prodigy Sparsh Shah is almost unmissable. While Shah has
the exact same medical condition as the antagonist of the film, the above quote
from the film puts things into clear perspective – Mr Glass is a supervillain;
Sparsh Shah is nothing short of a hero!
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The Indian-American child artiste,
singer-songwriter, rapper and motivational speaker was one of the speakers at
the ongoing Goafest 2018. At the annual ‘ad-festival’, Shah started off his
session with the national anthem, setting a patriotic mood for the session, and
followed it up with inspiring anecdotes from his life and his accomplishments.
Born with an incurable disease called Osteogenesis Imperfecta – a condition
that makes bones extremely fragile and brittle, Sparsh suffered the breaking of
35-40 bones while emerging from his mother’s womb. Since then, over the last 14
years, the count of fractures has gone up to 135, with doctors failing to
predict how many more are to come. However, what has gone stronger over the
years is Shah’s grit and spirit with which he has touched millions of lives
across the world. Despite having lived a challenging life, Shah narrated his
life story in one sentence, a quote by Haruki Murakami: “Pain is inevitable,
suffering is optional.”
About two years ago, Sparsh Shah shot to fame after his video of
a music cover of Eminem’s ‘Not Afraid’ went viral, making the people and
international media sit up and take note of this prodigy. “Leading a
challenging life that is also painful, music became a great escape from the
pain,” said Shah, adding that he has been learning Hindustani Classical music
for the last eight years and Western music for the last four. The little wonder
has till date written 28 songs, given over 100 performances and spoken at
venues that include the UN headquarters and Google, among many others.
At Goafest 2018, while addressing a congregation of some of the
most creative professionals from the world of advertising and media, Shah
shared two principles or success mantras that he swears by – self
responsibility and social responsibility. While asking people to be self
responsible, Shah highlighted the need for having a positive, ‘can-do’
attitude. Shah said, “I truly believe that every issue can be solved. If you
believe you can do it, you will do it.” He also highlighted the importance of
giving back to society by being socially responsible, so that the world can
share a better tomorrow. Shah said, “Growing up and living in the age of
information, we should all know that we spend at least 12 hours on media. What
we receive from these media platforms is crucial. In this fast paced world of
advertisements, people really do believe what they see. With great power comes
great responsibility. We have to be the role models. We can change society’s
attitude. Be the voice of specially abled people. We need to build campaigns to
make society accessible.”
The
inspiring session was met with applause. Shah concluded the session by asking
people to join in his mission to ‘Heal the World’ by singing the popular song
by Michael Jackson.
