“My mother is tired of supporting me financially”

A line from her phone’s ringtone — Billy Joel’s “She’s Always a Woman” holds true for her — “she can kill with a smile, she can wound with her eyes...”

Divya Arora, a multi-faceted Karamveer Puraskaar 2008-09 winner, is a former beauty queen, besides being a playwright, director, actor, poet and a creative writer. She is synonymous with the song, but with a difference — that she is differently-abled. Afflicted by cerebral palsy, Divya is extraordinarily active in her creative endeavours.

The Delhi-born Divya moved to Mumbai to work for a production company and now shuttles between Mumbai and the Capital for creative reasons. She has worked with film-maker Sanjay Leela Bhansali in

Guzaarish and trained Hritik Roshan, who plays the role of a quadriplegic in the film, besides appearing in a supporting role in Anurag Kashyap’s

Shaitan and as a child artiste in

Shiva Ka Insaaf .

With several other feathers in her cap, including the Positive Health Hero 2012 Award for Entertainment, the International Cerebral Palsy Award 2012 for Excellence in Arts, the Ambassador for Cerebral Palsy 2013 (a national-level award given by Indian Academy of Cerebral Palsy), Divya is possibly the country’s first and only wheelchair-bound actor to undertake theatre in over 15 years.

Now at 38, her condition is deteriorating. Her bones are getting brittle and the “family is tired of supporting” her. With her health getting worse — she only has one working kidney, was recently diagnosed with bladder cancer and suffers from other wheelchair-related complications — each passing day is a challenge.

On Tuesday, the eve of the International Day of People with Disability, the Lady Shri Ram College graduate says: “My mother is tired of supporting me financially. She is in no condition to support me anymore. My father says indicatively that if I want to commit suicide I should go ahead as I am expensive to manage on a single income.”

“India barely has any organised fund support for the differently-abled — neither from the government nor the corporate sector. A Delhi-based organisation that received funds from Amir Khan’s Satyamev Jayate has offered to let me stage a play as part of their fund raiser. But this and similar organisations raise ample funds by advertising my condition and then pay me peanuts.”

Divya lives in a rented accommodation which costs Rs.17,000 per month, along with a full-time domestic help whom she pays Rs.15,000. However, she earns less than 10,000 per month.

“I never imagined that I will have to ask for charity. I extra hard to make ends meet, but then I get sick and it worsens the situation.”

However, she remains strong. Divya will perform on February 22 for a “Valentine Session on Where is the Love for the Disabled” at the India Habitat Centre here.