Rusty Irani
speaker
61 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Nov 2024
last heard Nov 2024
Rusty Irani’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
From one cartoon character come to life to another, I would expect.
And it's only 1.30 a.m. at night, you know.
Sorry about that, Rusty. I'm not even caffeinated yet. I'm not even caffeinated, so can you believe that?
Well, I'm from Mumbai, India. I am born and brought up in India. The accent is a result of me having traveled to the U.S. since I was 13 to find a cure for the disease that I suffer from. So I'm on a wheelchair. I've been on a wheelchair all my life. I suffer from this progressive neurological condition called psoriasis. Spinal muscular atrophy. It's SMA for short.
It's got the world's most expensive drug right now, which I won't ever have access to because I don't fall under the compassionate user program. So it's a progressive disorder where my body doesn't make this protein that helps my nerves to create more nerve cells to help my muscles grow. So hence the atrophy bit. And yeah, I was a kid.
It's a progressive neurological disorder.
So I could walk as a child. And then I met with a bike accident at the age of nine. Go figure. So yeah, met with a bike accident. And I've been on a wheelchair for the last 35 years. And I've driven different wheelchairs since then. And I went to school here in Mumbai. And then I went and studied English from a college here in Mumbai. I majored in English, got my first degree in English.
And then I had this bug up my ass because I loved films. And during the whole period of my convalescence as a kid, my mom opened the whole world of cinema and books. And because I could not speak as legibly and as articulately right now as I'm speaking with you guys here.
I used to only speak with the head nod and like speaking like this guy, like all every typical Indian, how we usually tend to talk. And so my mom opened, like, the whole world of books to me and, like, cinema. And cinema, that is not meant for, like, a nine-year-old. Like, you know, I was exposed to, like, all the Arnold Schwarzenegger stuff and all the Sylvester Stallone stuff.
I'll be honest with you, Rusty. You know what? I'm very impressed, though, because... And I thought, like, all Americans spoke like Arnie. Yeah, exactly.
And Sylvester Stallone. Yeah, yeah.
Welcome to Mumbai.
I'm not one of those disabled guys who shows up on reality television with an inspiration porn story. I don't even have those kind of stories. All my life, it's all about these wackadoo incidents that have been happening with me. It's like one crazy adventure after another.
I can't see myself sitting at home and moping about this shit, but I'd rather joke about it and crack a smile and go on with life because... It's hilarious to me. Like, you know, I don't know how some disabled folk can, like, you know, just make some kind of inspiration porn story out of their life. And yeah, self-entitled pricks, but like, you know, me, I'm like different.
So I like, you know, like just putting myself out there. Yeah, yeah, you can laugh. Like, you know, I'm allowed to make these jokes. So, yeah.
Well, first of all, they all think like I'm some kind of a... Like you've been to Thailand, right? I mean, I saw the episode. So you remember all those tuk-tuks in Thailand, the small little rickshaw scooters? Bombay is full of those. So every rickshaw guy thinks I'm like some new competition in Thailand. So the moment I step out of my home, either... And I'm a big guy.
I'm like almost like, you know, 56 inches across and I'm like six foot two. So I'm on this chair and everybody thinks I'm just out for a ride. The... The seriously creepy part about my disease is I don't look disabled.
Like, you know, when I speak like this and when I'm like sitting with you guys here, you would not even realize like, you know, I'm like, I can hardly function in terms of like my motor skills and my ability to like, you know, even transfer myself. But when I'm out there, like from the local, Transportation buses to guys on the cows and the dogs. Everybody chases me.
Someone's trying to run me off the road. It's mayhem. And Mumbai roads and Mumbai infrastructure is not even meant for regular pedestrians. Let me tell you that.
I'm sure you guys also know about this, because if you've seen the documentary from Crip Camp, like, you know, the kind of struggle the disabled guys in the U.S. had to go through to get the kind of facilities that you got. Exactly. It was like such a, like they actually went and like, you know, took over the town hall in San Francisco.
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