Scavenger hunt with a difference

Imagine a person in a wheelchair, a visual impaired, a senior citizen, people belonging to the LGBTQ community and a few non-disabled people all traipsing around the streets of Mumbai in search of hidden treasure. Fantastic as it may sound, that is exactly what is going to happen at the inclusive treasure hunt organised by Trinayani, an NGO which seeks to spread awareness about disability.

“The ultimate message is inclusion of all communities. However, I also wanted to point out that many areas in the city are not accessible to persons with disabilities. Filing petitions is all well and good, but people need to see individuals with disabilities in public spaces. It creates conversations about accessibility,” says Ritika Sahni, founder trustee of Trinayani and organiser of the treasure hunt.

The hunt will take place in and around the Hiranandani Gardens of Powai with six teams of disabled and non-disabled members. The clues themselves are inclusive, since along with a couple of written clues, there will be clues in Braille,  sign language and even clues that are sung out. By solving the clues and completing the activities that come along with them, participants will get to move on to the next clue and so on, until they finally find the treasure. “The best part is that none of the participants know what’s lying in store for them. They don’t know the other participants or what clues they will have to follow. It will all be a surprise,” explains Ritika.

Though completely a first of its kind in Mumbai, a similar project was undertaken by Trinayani in October last year, where they had a treasure hunt with school children. “Each team had one student from the Victoria Memorial School for the Blind. Since all the clues were in Braille, they had to rely completely on the student who was blind to read it out. The response was overwhelming and one of the mothers even told me that her little girl wants to learn Braille now,” Ritika reminisces with a laugh.

Helping Trinayani in this grand scale treasure hunt are a number of volunteers, both disabled and non-disabled. Sunita Sancheti, who is an avid traveller and a wheelchair user, for instance, has been a part of the project right from the start and helped out with judging the accessibility of the spaces. “We were initially thinking of doing it in Bandra. But they have narrow roads, which are difficult to navigate in a wheelchair. Powai is much better in terms of accessibility. Yes, you still cannot navigate the curb cuts in the pavements alone, but the condition is better than most other places,” says Sunita, who is waiting for Sunday to arrive with a mix of excitement and trepidation that organisers often feel.

Powai resident Sudipta Mukherjee Mandal was also instrumental in helping choose the location for the event. “Powai gets a lot of support from the commandos and the public infrastructure is great. So, when Ritika mentioned a treasure hunt, this is the best place I thought of. People need to see that disabled people can also have fun. There will be a lot of interaction, both among the participants themselves, the workers in the shops they will visit for clues, and even the passersby. All in all, I really think that it will make people think twice about their prejudices as far as inclusion is concerned,” she signs off.

Today, 10 am to 2 pm, At Hiranandani Garden, Hiranandani, Powai