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jesfer

jesfer
p.
kottakunnu , kerala

Mid shot of 35-year-old Jesfer PK. He is clean-shaven with short, wavy black hair with a side parting. Wearing a pale blue shirt he sits in his wheelchair in front of a painting propped up vertically on an easel. Gripping a paintbrush in his mouth he bends his head to dip the brush into an open paintbox. He has used a red, blue and yellow palette in his painting that has vertical bands of many shades of these colours; they also overlap to create orange, green and purple.
Frontal shot of Jesfer ascending the ramp to his first floor house in his power wheelchair. Behind him, at the foot of the ramp, is a mango tree with lush green leaves. A narrow tarred road runs to the left; to the right is a ledge with four potted plants. Jesfer is strapped into his wheelchair with a broad black brace across his midriff. He wears light blue jeans, brown shoes, and a brown and black checked shirt.
Jesfer, his wife Fathima and two-year-old son Kenzal are in a playground. Fathima and Kenzal have climbed onto a merry-go-round. Fathima wears specs with a black frame, a pale blue and grey churidar-kameez and a black shawl covering her head. She smiles as she supports Kenzal who is seated on one of the peach-coloured carousel horses. Jesfer smiles up at them from his wheelchair on the ground below. In the background is metal play equipment painted red, green, blue and yellow.
Jesfer in his wheelchair moves along a tarred road with family and friends. Walking beside him is his wife Fathima carrying their son Kenzal in her arms, his nephew and two male friends. Fathima wears a beige kameez and pale blue churidar with a multi-coloured head-covering. A white handkerchief is draped over Kenzal’s head to shield him from the sun. Jesfer wears light blue jeans and a pale blue full-sleeve shirt. His nephew wears beige jeans and black T-shirt. Both his friends wear pale blue jeans; one has on a maroon T-shirt and the other, a light grey shirt with sleeves rolled up to the elbow.
Jesfer poses with his wife Fathima PV (31) and son Kenzal Rumi (2) next to his painting put up on an easel. Jesfer wears a pale blue shirt and matching jeans. Kenzal sits on his lap, wearing a black T-shirt and holding a green stuffed monkey. Fathima stands to the left, leaning against Jesfer with her arm resting on his shoulder. She wears specs with a black frame, beige kameez and multi-coloured shawl covering her head. The painting is in bold hues of red, yellow and blue, with a mask-like face in the centre.
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“I believe a miraculous turning point awaits every suffering human at the very moment they lose the will to live”

Fathima P.V. was born on December 3, the International Day of Persons with Disabilities (PwD). And heaven ordained that she fall in love with a PwD!
 
Fathima’s husband is Jesfer P. Kottakkunnu (35) from Malappuram, Kerala, an award-winning artist with neck-down paralysis who uses a customised electric wheelchair that he operates with his chin. He personally handed over his portrait of APJ Abdul Kalam to the former President. His 15 sq. ft. oil painting of the Ruler of Dubai and his son the Crown Prince hangs prominently in the royal palace. His artwork has been exhibited across Kerala and in Mumbai, Bangalore and Singapore. In April 2021, World Art Dubai exhibited 15 of his paintings.
 
Jesfer developed symptoms of muscular atrophy from age five, and by Grade 5 he couldn’t walk. His upper body muscles also weakened, and at 15 he could no longer write in his diary or draw cartoon characters from Jungle Book. Ayurveda and homeopathy temporarily raised his hopes only to destroy them. “I actually planned to commit suicide,” he recalls. “I had even marked the date!”
 
The date elapsed. “When you reach the height of dejection, a surprising moment occurs as if God has shown you the way.” He started drawing with his mouth, holding an eraser-tipped pencil between his lips. “When I used the eraser the pencil point would pierce the inside of my cheek and make it bleed. My eyes would ache because my face was so close to the page. But I carried on.” With persistence and practice he improved his skill. He graduated to watercolours and acrylic (oils are only for portraits).
 
Jesfer did not limit himself to art. With activist Raees Hidaya and others he co-founded Green Palliative, an NGO that addresses disability and social and environmental concerns. Fathima, a Malayali raised in Oman, used to respond to Jesfer’s posts on Green Palliative’s social media group. The two began to discuss art, poetry and life. They grew closer, lengthy phone conversations followed, and when Jesfer proposed he found she’d been waiting for his offer! “Then our conversations took on a different colour. We began video calls.” He described the severity of his disability in elaborate detail but it made no difference to her decision.
 
In November 2015 Fathima got her flight ticket ready and just two days before her departure she told her parents of her plan. Jesfer met his bride for the first time when she landed at Calicut airport. “We got married on November 30 and Fathima actively participated in the December 3 programmes.”
 
Their son was born in 2018. Fathima, who is a published poet, suggested the name Kenzal Rumi. One imagines an older Kenzal’s friends listening spellbound as he describes his unusual parents and the poetry of their lives.
 

Photos:

Vicky Roy

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