65) Coping with paralysis

I was 14 years old when I underwent a spinal surgery and an operation gone completely wrong; I was paralyzed from waist down.

Going to school was out of the question and it looked like that I might never take my standard X exams. I began a slow recovery process and that took almost a year.
My parents engaged private tuitions and despite not able to attend school, I passed the SSC exams with an aggregate of 80%.

I had struggle with my infirmity and yet I went to a regular college though requiring physiotherapy. Each day was a struggle but mentally I had reconciled to my limitations and looked forward to the pressures of the day without adding self-pity to it. I was determined to carve out as normal a life as possible given my station in life.

I love my parents for dad despite being an extremely busy businessman was always at my side. My mom; she’s a real darling. She was the airhostess in British Airways when this mishap happened and she chucked her job the moment my state was known. It’s she who arranges all my physiotherapy sessions and guides me to a walk in the garden when it was so easy for her to have arranged a maid.

I learnt to move ahead and not flagging my love for outdoors. Adventure sports – snorkeling, swimming in the seas, white water rafting, trekking in the Himalayas – have a special appeal in my heart. I particularly cherish the 13 km trek at Vasihno Devi, a place of religious significance and sanctity to us.

I also realized that there are other people who suffer disabilities but don’t have the resources that I am blessed with. The plight of a 2 year old spastic child inspired me to organize a fundraising event for setting up a vocational training centre where they could learn to be economically self-sufficient.
Music is another passion instilled in me right from my tender years by my loving parents. I performed before the Prime Minister during my school days. I also had the honour of performing in a concert for facilitating Nelson Mandela apart from appearing in many TV programmes.

I have traveled extensively to America, Europe, and Far East Asia observing how each country has it own distinct characteristics and traveling always teaches you a thing or two.

Despite my hectic work, I am involved in a NGO that facilitates financial and infrastructural support to develop centres for primary education to the under privileged section of the society. We adopted a school on the outskirts of Delhi and turned it in to school with a permanent structure, computers and library and enrolling students up to 8th grade.

I am humble enough to realize that life is about giving and am conscious of the grace that floods my life