Author Interview with Jawaid Danish

Jawaid Danish

Setu editor Sunil Sharma recently did an email interview with the noted thespian, playwright and storyteller Jawaid Danish, based in Canada, on his recent success of a play on autism and a range of allied issues.

 Q: Jawaid Danish in his own words, please!

 

Jawaid Danish (JD): Basically, I am a playwright, poet, dastango (storyteller) and theatre activist with 20 books published. Revived the lost art of the 15th-century Urdu storytelling in the west, “DASTAN HIJRATON KI,” the only dastango in North America and Europe and get invitations for performances worldwide.

Recipient of The Civic Arts Award Canada, Ghalib Award - Delhi, Siramony Sahitya Award _ Lucknow to name a few. One M.Phil has been conducted on my diasporic plays ' HIJRAT KE TAMASHEY" and two more research going on in two different universities in India on my diasporic writings.

Recently one of my solo play for the awareness of Autism in our community, YES MY SON RAZI IS AUTISTIC, has been translated in 19 International Languages, and released in the world Book Fair- Delhi FEB. 2025. It has achieved a Record in the India Book Records- 2025. Artistic Director RangManch Canada- not for Profit theatre group- Oshawa.

 

Q: Your play “Yes, My Son Razi is Autistic” is in the limelight and translated in 19 international languages, a milestone for an author. It is an intimate narrative with finesse and artistic craft about a developmental disability, affecting 1 out of 127 people worldwide, as per WHO report of 2021.  Were there any technical problems visualising and completing this first ever solo play in Urdu and other vernacular Indian languages, a very bold theme for a conservative stage?

 JD: A friend’s son has autism, I used to visit them and notice the child’s behaviour and got firsthand details from my wife who was teaching special-needs kids. It took some time to put the idea as a solo play.  It is a heart- rending narrative exploring the trials and tribulations of a mother   witnessing the neurodiverse experience of her son with autism. She is frustrated about the double standards in the community park, in the school bus and in the marketplace.

She encapsulates what one gets if one raises an autistic child: “Everything I have learnt is just patience and more patience.  I have learnt this and would request you to see autism not as a disability, but as a different type of ability.”

ASD (Autistic Spectrum Disorder) is a taboo in our communities. But people need to understand that it is not a disease, it is a difference that deserves compassion and empathy.  Irony is, first there is a denial phase within the family. Instead of contacting a professional help, in most cases superstitious practices are common, when the case becomes alarming, then they contact for medical help.

I wrote this solo-play in Urdu. When posted on social media, lots and lots of friends and followers got connected, and offered to translate in various languages, and within a year, it became the talk of the town and got translated into 19 international languages. One publisher offered to publish the same in an anthology, it was released in World Book Fair 2025, and due to fair demand, it got published in Urdu, Hindi and English also.


 
Q: What new awareness, understanding, insights you brought through this play to the domain. 
          

JD:  I am a theatre activist, I write and stage plays for social change, also for the awareness of autism in our communities, which matters. Drama therapy is a powerful call for compassion and empathy. The key to fostering a more inclusive society.

I am pleased that it is used as a tool in a few clinics in Delhi and Lucknow, for the families with special-need kids, to make them feel comfortable with their home environment. These angels need our unconditional love.  The spirit of the solo creates a strong sense of empathy, distinctly different from sympathy or apathy. Autism is not something to be cured, it is something to be understood and accepted. 
          
        

Q: How does the solo play impact the audience globally?  Any interesting exchanges or messages about its broad reception.

JD: Let me quote one comments of a mother with an ASD child:

“I felt connected and could see my world reflecting in each word, so I know every mother of a child on the spectrum (ASD) could relate and connect. It’s certainly a powerful yet most     empathic resource for raising awareness, fostering acceptance, building a better compassionate and inclusive world for everyone. I can only pay my utmost gratitude to Mr. Jawaid Danish for penning this solo, spreading the message out loud to the world preserving every bit of sanctity and paramount importance of our children, our beloved children who are indeed very special.”

 (Dr. Nayela Ahmed- Special Educator -Delhi).

This small solo has reached globally in no time, I am constantly invited to various universities and cultural academies to present it to students and engage in interactive sessions. I have read this solo play in Tashkent Oriental University- Uzbekistan, Tajik University -Dushanbe Tajikistan, Aliyah University Kolkata, Hamdard University Delhi, and J.N.U. New Delhi.

Q: Your presentation of the story in a powerful voice is superb. The audio version brings to life the text for the audience/viewers.  The expressed feelings and emotions convey the courage and pain of families facing these tough situations so well.  How was the experience narrating it for your loyal base of admirers and fresh listeners, especially feeling and speaking as the character of the dad? The involved sensitivities in such a plot? 
           

 JD: I am blessed with a good voice. Learnt voice modulations during AIR Kolkata, drama assignments. But let me confess, I am extremely weak and emotional. I cry during readings, and on stage, it creates problems during recordings. Last February I was invited to present this solo in a Multicultural festival in Udaipur, while reading I broke in tears, and ladies sitting in the first row also started hiding their tears.  I wrote this play in one sitting, completed in an hour, but the recording took more time.   
I strongly believe that in this age of chaos and confusion, theatre is a great source of comfort and healing. 
 

 Q: Any new project being contemplated by you?  On migration that has been of interest to you, of late? Talking of the tough challenges and awards of migration as a choice for a significant number of people? Of displacement and replanting roots? Of loss and search for homes in different contexts and climes? 
 
 JD: Beside my plays on migration, I am busy these days with dastangoi, the 15th century lost art of storytelling in Urdu, I have revived it in North America and Europe, these tales are based on migration, the life of immigrants in Canada.  I would like to narrate the journey of immigrants, which is my 40 years of lived experience in Canada.  What happens when a new immigrant arrives here? 
Whether in Canada or on any western shore, the journey of immigrants is a slow unfolding of lives in motion—carrying not just bags and boxes, but entire worlds of tradition, faith, and memory. Newly arrived families have barely begun to unpack the culture and beliefs they carried across oceans and arrange them on the unfamiliar shelves of new homes when another wave, fresh with dreams and hope, touches land and prepares to anchor. This process repeats endlessly—a labor woven from both hope and heartache, yet filled with moments of joy and discovery.

In new neighborhoods, immigrants do more than seek bread; they search for the flavors that nourish memory—a pinch of familiar spice, the comfort of preferred meat, the rituals of faith and thought handed down for their children. There is a longing to keep alive the language in which lullabies were sung and poems recited, to nurture the roots brought from far away. Remembering and renewing these customs, day after day, is a challenge that calls for resilience and devotion.  The strength inspires others, and the richness shared is invaluable in shaping the fabric of the new communities.

The first generation’s life is shaped by toil and adaptation, by the urgent need for livelihood, for a sense of place and belonging.  Within these structures arise celebrations and sorrows, weddings, the blessing in the form of children, and inevitably, losses- broken marriages, the daunting road of single motherhood, the approaching shadow of age, midlife disquiet. Yet beyond these hardships, another struggle emerges, the delicate tension between old and new, between parents and children.  The younger generation, caught between inherited traditions and glittering promise of schools and colleges, wrestles with the quick currents of freedom, reinvention, and discovery, inwardly torn by the effort to live two lives- the fading tapestry and the dazzling world outside their home. Families who go through this uninterrupted storm of change, who pass through confusion and transformation with their heart intact, are indeed blessed.

For those who have left their homelands, sensitivity and worry often run deep, shadows of inferiority and doubt gather closer than they do for those born on native soil, leaving immigrants more vulnerable to the loss of inner harmony.

Q: Any message for our readers, please? Words that can uplift during storms of life?  The way Rumi illuminates a dark path for millions of his dedicated followers.  
 
JD: I believe in the Sufi mystic mantras of three golden words, “Acceptance, Tolerance and Love.”  Whether for the Autistic kids or day-to-day life, gradually our mindset will change. I write for peace, purpose and passion.

A: Thanks for your time.

JD: Thanks.

LINKS

AUDIO: https://youtu.be/qcYS5aDKLl0?si=OToNYVQOcXupBerK 

AMAZON: https://www.amazon.in/AUTISTIC-awareness-Translated-International-Languages/dp/B0F1XZ5HJH


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