The power of music to enable people to overcome physical and mental challenges has been proved time and again, the latest evidence for which comes from Delhi.
Kavita Kumar, who lives in East of Kailash area in the Indian Capital, sent us the story of her 20-year-old daughter Benzy, who has found cure, comfort and progress through music therapy.
An Autistic since birth, Benzy began learning various Indian classical ragas at an early age to help her in speech.
“Singing the ragas made her feeble voice stronger and melodious. She has many audio cassettes to her credit, the first of which, called, ‘Basic Ragas,’ was released when she was just nine years old. Although she cannot converse, Benzy expresses herself through music,” Mrs Kumar said.
Awards gallery
Benzy has made her parents, peers and the community proud by winning a number of national awards.
Among them was a National Award that she received ten years ago from the Indian President for her cassette called ‘Koshish,’ which was presented by Hindi film actor Hrithik Roshan and marketed by ‘Nupur Audio.’
As well as being featured in the ‘Limca Book of Records’ (2005), Benzy has won a gold medal at a national contest in 2006 and the ‘National Karamveer Puruskar Award’ in 2007. She is also a recipient of the ‘Zee Astitva’ and the ‘Dr Batra’s Positive Health Award,’ instituted by Homeopath Dr Mukesh Batra.
She is the brand Ambassador of Icongo & Dhoon Foundation and a ‘Permanent Child Artist’ at All India Radio.
She was the only Indian artist to be featured in the International CD titled, ‘Sounds of the Disabled Underground Volume 3,’ released last year.
Mrs Kumar said that among the recent achievements of her daughter was the release of ‘Aashayein,’ an album of songs for ‘special children.’
“Legendary singer Lata Mangeshkar presented the first copy of the album, which is marketed by Nupur Audio. It contains ten songs of devotion, mother-sacrifice, dedication, passion and heart-touching emotions. They are not filmy songs but based on fresh music,” she said.
Myth broken
She said that the progress achieved by Benzy broke the myth that special children can seldom sing on freshly composed music, which is a must for playback singing.
“This is indirectly spreading the message of music therapy in the society and is reviving the lost hopes parents of such child who were otherwise treated as waste lot worldwide,” she said.
Sites to visit: www.benzymusic.com; youtube/benzymusic
