Ulgulan Talks! : Interview with Praful B
In this tenth interview of The Sangyan’s ‘Ulgulan Talks!’, an endeavour to voice the issues of the larger interest of ‘We, the People’, Abhishek (the interviewer) talks with Praful B, a young man from Mumbai, Maharashtra (India) primarily regarding the impact of climate change on his life regarding his disability.
Praful has completed his postgraduate in Event Management. Praful is a marketing and HR consultant apart from being a DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) professional and design thinker. Praful can be reached at his LinkedIn profile.
This interview was conducted in March 2023 through online mode in written format. The due informed consent of the interviewee has been taken before the publication of the blog. Further, the ‘Right to be Forgotten’ of the interviewee shall be respected.
Hello Praful, please talk about your life journey in some detail for our readers.
I have ideated, written, narrated stories and executed campaigns with corporate, celebrity, and social sector clients for almost two decades. My average day consists of recruitment and skilling conversations for LGBTQ+ folx, women, people with disabilities, defence veterans etc., apart from HR tech and Mar comm solutions to transform modern-day businesses.
I look forward to arriving at the correct alchemy of design thinking & inclusion of diversity. This pursuit keeps me going channelling my adult ADHD powers has also helped my teams win a Sabre Asia award for an FMCG brand campaign in 2008, one Eemax Award for Best award show running in 2019, and another for Best IP Creation in 2022, along with all three interactive tech awards (gold, silver, and bronze) at Wow Awards Asia in 2020.
My past glories include writing for various Indian series broadcasted on National Television and servant leadership of a movement representing the LGBTQ+ population of our country. I have been fortunate to create many first-of-its-kind initiatives and formats with hundreds of leading brands and non-government organisations.
I am available to discuss and collaborate on projects that include DEI consulting, experience planning (live events, XR tech, digital marketing, and customer interaction design, etc.) peppered with strategic brand and marketing communication (Tie-ups and alliances, client servicing, public relations, B2B channel communication, vendor relations, and negotiation).
Please talk about your condition/disability and comorbidities, if any, in some detail.
I have ADHD and am on the autism spectrum.
Do climate change and its induced disasters (read extreme weather and climatic conditions like heatwaves, cyclones, floods, etc.) have any impact on your physical health/condition? If yes, please illustrate the ways it affects you.
It leads to panic and worries about the well-being of friends and family. Insomnia, palpitations and brain fog then lead to loss of mental functionality as well as lesser executive function.
Do climate change and its induced disasters (read extreme weather and climatic conditions like heatwaves, cyclones, floods, etc.) have any impact on your mental health/condition? If yes, please illustrate the ways it affects you.
Yes, of course. Constant anxiety and depression are threats that increase with such occurrences.
What do you think about climate change and its induced disasters (read extreme weather and climatic conditions like heatwaves, cyclones, floods, etc.) acting as a threat multiplier and resulting in capability deprivation (like loss of livelihood or additional medical expenses, etc.)? Please provide a personal account, if plausible.
My father and his twin sister were yet to be born but travelled with my expectant grandmother during the great Indian partition. Their autism and growth journey were impacts of the same. It has affected and disabled them for the entirety of their lives to different extents. Similarly, any displacement due to extreme weather would affect many lives for the longest time.
Please tell us about any measure/action you take to adapt and mitigate the negative impact of climate change and its induced disasters (read extreme weather and climatic conditions like heatwaves, cyclones, floods, etc.) in your life to avoid worse-off experiences (like avoiding travelling during extreme weather conditions or certain medication, etc.)? Please provide a personal account if plausible.
I just keep updated with news. no special measures currently.
What else do you think needs to be done to counter the worse-off experiences of climate change and its induced disasters (read extreme weather and climatic conditions like heatwaves, cyclones, floods, etc.) and to counter the disproportionate impact of climate change and its induced disasters on persons with disability concerning their physical and mental health, work and livelihood, hunger and poverty, disability-inclusive disaster risk reduction, etc. to ensure disability-inclusive climate justice.
Having a sustained dialogue about this with changemakers and thought-leaders who work on policies.
Any further comment you want to make with respect to the intersection between climate change (and its induced disasters) and disability?
Since we, as people with disabilities, are more vulnerable — our trauma response-trained minds can be engaged to avert larger issues before they snowball or explode.
This was Praful B talking about his life journey and lived experiences with disability and climate change. We, at The Sangyan and Ulgulan Talks, thank him for giving his precious time and an opportunity to know about him and his lived experiences.
Abhishek Kumar is an NCPEDP-Javed Abidi fellow on Disability currently working on the “Impact of Climate Change on Persons with Disabilities. The author can be reached at <abhishek.ncpedp@gmail.com>.
The interview has been published on the blog of The Sangyan as part of its public engagement and discourse initiative called ‘Ulgulan Talks!’.
