Nigel Akkara was a 21-year-old student of a reputable college in the city when he was arrested and charged with kidnap, extortion and murder. Eleven years later, he works to rehabilitate those who had strayed into crime. It wasn't his six years in a 6ft x 8ft cell at Presidency jail that changed him but his discovery of dance and music.
He has dancer and social activist Alokananda Roy to thank for his transformation. She had been requested to try out dance therapy in the jail in 2007. There was no looking back either for Roy or for the 58 inmates who danced their way to change with her help.
"When I started I had no plans no theories. I just wanted to share with them the joy of rhythm and music," said Roy.
Overcoming resistance from inmates, she started with martial dance and moved on to full-fledged dance drama that not only went beyond the boundaries of the prison but also the state.
"When mafirst came to teach us, I touched her feet and told her please strike my name off the list. I don't want to dance. Some months later I was stepping outside jail for the first time in years to perform," said Akkara at an interaction with students at American Center on Friday.
After being released in 2009, he started to work as an administrative officer for Touch World, an NGO that works with children of convicts. Six months later the funds dried up and the postgraduate student of human rights was forced to start looking for another job. Six interviews later he realised that few employers would give him a chance to earn a decent living.
Akkara now runs a company that provides housekeeping, pest control and security services. Many of his employees are ex-convicts starting over. "I have not received a single complaint against any of my employees in a year of operation," he declares with pride.
Thirty-five of the 58 inmates who Roy worked with initially have been released but more have joined her sessions in prison. Roy, along with Akkara, also reaches out to school and college children with music and dance therapy.
"I believe that no one is born a criminal. Circumstances force them into crime. We need to be sensitive and not push them back into the lives that they wanted to leave behind," said Roy.
Roy and her team are preparing for shows of Balmiki Pratibhain Mumbai and she is also working on a new production.
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