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| Gautam Lewis in Calcutta. (Aranya Sen) |
“I don’t know where and when I was born in this city but it calls me.”
Calcutta-born Gautam Lewis was abandoned at three and then contracted polio. He was raised and sheltered at Mother House for four years before London-based Patricia Lewis adopted him.
He went on to study at London’s Hill House (also school to princes William and Harry). At 24, he became manager to rock bands like Prodigy, Incognito and The Libertines (frontman Pete Doherty). In 2007, he qualified as a pilot and founded Freedom In The Air, a non-profit organisation teaching people with disabilities to fly.
Today, the sky is the limit for the little big man on crutches.
“I came back last year for six days to look at the person I could have been. Or, to see the ghost of the person I never was,” Gautam tells Metro.
The 32-year-old is in town to exhibit Full Circle, a photographic exhibition mirroring his fight to end polio in India. Organised by the Prabha Khaitan Foundation, it will be on from December 5 to 7 at Gaganendra Pradarshashala.
Like many Indians gone abroad, Gautam suffered an identity crisis. “At some point of time, I didn’t want to believe there was anything Indian in me but then, that would be living an unreal life.
“When I came back to Calcutta, a reality check like this can be uncomfortable for those who’ve pretended that it never existed. It was as if someone had played the video in my mind and pressed rewind… and it was a video I had thrown away,” he says.
Gautam’s video of his life has scenes that have survived most storms. “At 21, I had a camera in one hand and a record in the other. I took up artiste management for bands like Prodigy, and a company set up by Stephen King and Alan McGee (of Oasis).”
Soon, he was managing rock bands The Libertines, The Hives, D4 and The Kills. “It was tough to deal with rock bands. In the middle of the night the cops would call me to pick up Pete!” he recalls, but with a smile.
Tough though it was, Gautam had many goals to score. In September 2007, he passed his ground and air examinations in six months at Southampton.
“I fulfilled my longstanding dream to fly. Someday, I want to fly all across the world. I never thought that someone like me would be catered for in the world of aviation and I want it to be a dream for others with polio, too.”
His photographs tell his tale. A child selling tea, a rickshawpuller with polio, a smiling face but no arm…
“I could have been any of them… I have polio because I didn’t get vaccinated. That’s what Full Circle is all about. Maybe my destiny is to come back here and help other people. You live only once and I don’t want to waste this second chance.
“This is my calling — I don’t know what it is but it involves the city and the people. I hope NGOs come forward to take me on a road trip to places like Bihar to spread awareness,” says the man on a mission.
