How I converted my physical disability into my strength

i remember

when i was a kid i read a line in my

moral science book

that your hard times of life may teach

you what your books can never

for my hindi speaking audience i would

like to say the same line in hindi

that have engaged

and it is not just a line which i have

read and listened but it is the line

which i have experienced

and lived in each and every moment of my

life since my birth

talking about my story 20 years back

when i was born

my parents were very happy because i was

their first child

for some months everything went very

fine but after some months of my birth

they found something abnormal in my body

they could not understand what was

actually happening with me

so on the suggestions of some family

members and relatives they took me to a

doctor

and the doctor told them that i have

born with a disease called scoliosis

which basically means that i had a band

in my spinal cord

in my back bone it was a big shock for

them

their happiness turned into sadness

their good times turned into hard times

they were not getting what should they

do but despite being from a rural and

financially weak background

they tried their best to provide me good

medical treatment but nothing helped me

in improving

so at last at the age of seven i had to

go through a six hours long surgery

of my spinal cord that changed my body

structure completely

because some instruments were fit in my

body to support my spinal cord in

growing

but they changed the way i would look

like i was on complete bed rest for some

months

i had to do everything on bed only i was

not even allowed to sit

those some months were very hard for me

but the real challenge started

when i went back into the real world

till now i was just fighting with my

physical disability but now i also had

to fight with the mental challenges

which got created because of that the

surgery completely changed the way i

would live my life

the way i would think about myself the

way i would behave to people

and people would behave to me and i was

just a seven year old child

who was not enough mature to understand

and accept what was happening with him

at such time the biggest thing which

bothers the person is not his or her

disability

but it is the people’s behavior which

leaves no stone unturned to make the

person realize

that he is good for nothing and he has

to be dependent on others

i still remember the days when i was put

aside in my class

i would not be allowed to participate in

any competition or function

no one would be ready to play with me i

still remember the days when the whole

class used to be punished for doing

something mischievous

but i was the only one who would sit on

chair and see other students getting

punished

no one likes to be punished but i would

find to be punished because all these

things would make me realize

that i am different and i cannot do the

things what normal people can do

many such incidents were there which

deepened this thought in my mind

i still remember the day of annual

sports day in my school i was also one

of the participants in a game

i was too much excited and happy because

it was the first time when i was

participating in game

but my name was remote from the list of

players just before some minutes

because they thought that i am not

capable of playing the game i was too

much sad and angry

and many incidents were there which were

enough to make me quit and set aside

but it is rightly said where there is

well there is way

i had only two options either to quit or

to prove myself

but the mind and the will of that eight

or nine year old child was not ready to

quit

so i decided and determined to change my

life

i no longer wanted to live a life of a

person who is not only physically but

also mentally indicated

but the way was not easy for me i had to

prove myself

at each and every moment of my life but

i took the responsibility of my life

and started converting my disability

into my strength

on the way doing that the first thing

which i did was to accept myself to

accept my reality

and the moment i accepted it everything

would change in my life

now i stopped feeling bad about it now i

stopped hiding it

now i stopped minding on the things

people would say and talk about me

and that helped me a lot in fighting the

way i ate i would also like to suggest

to people watching to me

that whatever problems you are in

whatever loopholes you have

firstly accept them because until or

unless you accept your problems

you cannot solve them but the moment you

accept your problems it becomes very

easy for you to solve them

because now you focus on solutions not

problems i did this in my life and got

miraculous results

the next thing which i did was to prove

myself because the biggest problem

people like me face

is that they have to prove themselves at

each and every moment of their life

because if i go to someone and ask for

letting me do something

then most of them would say that no you

can’t do this because

they think that i am not capable of

doing the things what they can do

and same friend with me so now i will

not go to people

and beg for letting me do the things i

started initiating the works by myself

i would start works complete them and

show to all

and gradually people started changing

their opinion about me now they started

including me in the works

they would do now i started playing with

them and many times even it happened

that i was leading the group of the

people who would once think that i am

not capable of doing the works

what they can do it would never happen

if i would agree on people’s opinion

that i cannot do the things

what they can do everyone my family my

teachers my friends were against me

but the only person who believed in me

was me i believed and i knew that i can

do everything

and i proved it and gradually things

changed one more thing which i did

was to focus on the things where i was

good at as it is rightly said

when god closes one door for you he also

opens thousands of new doors for you

and same happened with me i knew that i

am a physically challenged person

but there were many things where i was

better than others i started discovering

them one by one

when i observed myself i found that i am

very good at learning new things

i can learn things faster and better

than others i started working on that

i started putting more efforts in my

studies and in the things where i could

use my creativity

with this ability and never give up

attitude i succeeded in becoming one of

the toppers in my state board exams

i have also been recipient of inspired

by government of india and achievers

awarded by denis bhaskar

i have also been one time national and

world record holder and many

achievements are there

but the biggest achievement i got in my

life that i could convert my physical

disability

into my biggest strength and live the

life i am living today

at last i would like to conclude my talk

with a suggestion to all of you that

don’t let your problems and disabilities

become your weakness

if you let your problems dominate your

life and make you weak then you won’t be

able to do anything in life

but if you believe that you can change

your life and if you believe that you

deserve a better life

then no one can stop you you will be

unstoppable thank you so much