Now this would sound strange to you, you would say we have all the limbs so how can we be handicapped. We all are handicapped in one way or the other. Having limbs – we are physically fine, but are we mentally? How do we look upon people with disabilities around us?

Every now and then I look for inspiration around me – not from Bill Gates or Steve Jobs, I am not saying they do not inspire me, they do but I seek inspiration from unsung heroes as well who have done incredibly good job of the situation they were in despite infinite limitations.

Whenever I look around me, I just feel blessed and at the same time very small in front of people who have had a tough life yet they had constant smile on their faces. They were tougher than their destiny and changed it with their karma.

As I was browsing the net, I came across one person – who lost all his limbs at the tender age of 5. But why do I need to tell you about him?  I am compelled, I am motivated, I am proud and I am moved to read what he has done in his life.

It is an inspiring story .He was a 5-year-old kid when his friends had dared him that he could not hold an iron rod into an open electric wire. We would never do this but he was just five-year old and may not have known the consequences it would lead to. He took the challenge and was electrocuted instantly. This incident itself showed how brave he was. Though he survived this accident but his hands and legs had to be amputated. Till the age of 16, he had not seen the outside world, he did not attend school. But he acquired the academic knowledge by studying books of his elder sisters who encouraged him a lot. He couldn’t walk but crawled on the floor, he lifted things with his mouth and ankle.

He passed his tenth and twelfth without even attending school. And then he got the opportunity to study further, to step out of his home, he cleared his Bachelors degree  and then MBA. He even got his scholarship during his course in finance. Today he himself is giving scholarships to disabled students. He used to get lot of interview calls based on his qualifications but once the interviewers saw him, they used to back out. They were mentally challenged themselves therefore their limited mindset thought that the physically challenged person would not be able to accomplish the work allotted to him.

This disturbed him a lot but he was a fighter. He kept fighting and got special shoes made from a cobbler which could enable him to walk on the road. He could walk without help now without legs, on his stumps with sandal like shoes. He could use the computer keyboard with his mouth and ankle. Due to his unrelenting attitude, today he is Finance and Accounts Officer in ONGC, none could have managed that job with those disabilities but he had the ability to discard those preconceived notions about such people who are differently challenged. People used to offer him help out of sympathy but he never took and was kind enough to say ‘no’ politely. Today he is held in  highest regards among his colleagues and has represented India abroad for various conferences on disability.

He is a man of courage. My favourite lines of my poem, “If I have the courage, I have everything”, I dedicate my poem to such people. Today he travels everywhere without any assistance in public transport and also plays carom and chess. He can laugh at himself as well. He smiles when someone calls him as squat or undersized. But he is above normal person.

We think we are hundred percent able, but no, our small thinking proves that we are not contributing positively towards society. Such people do as they realize the difficulties faced by them. We need to empathize with such people of strength instead of sympathizing with them or looking down on.

We should be brave like them and change our mindset so that the difficulties which they face in their life is diminished with a smile coming from our face for them. It will at least make their day and they would feel appreciated.

If I don’t share his name, this story would be incomplete. His name is Raja Mahendra Pratap and it is a coincidence that he shares his name with Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh, a freedom fighter, journalist,  writer,  social reformist, President of first Provisional Government of India. Isn’t this Man doing the same what his namesake did….FIGHT.

I salute all such people and I look up to them when I feel upset that I have not done much with my life as yet.

Remember always ,”Never look down on anybody unless you’re helping him up. ~Jesse Jackson

©Rekha

Story credit: BetterIndia.com