“I was a child whose life was ruled by sports. I lived for it, swore by it and went to great heights with it; until the time I couldn’t play anymore. Until my fourth grade, I lived with my grandparents while my brother and parents stayed in Chennai. It would so happen that each Diwali my brother would send a small cracker attached to a postcard which I would save meticulously and burst when we met in April, every year.
However, my parents and teachers didn’t echo the same sentiments towards my love for sports. It was a typical situation like shown in the movie ‘Ghilli’ where I bring home my trophies but they would mildly brush it aside saying it was okay but I needed to concentrate of my studies more! The trophy would go into my trunk where it would gather dust along with my other trophies. I was constantly body-shamed to the point where everyone would comment on how I looked like a guy with my scars and shorts.
It became even worse when they started to compare my brother with myself with his scores because he was an extremely sincere individual who worked hard to pave his way to the top. Braving all the struggles, I still went ahead to represent my college in the state level when an unexpected accident threw me out of the game (and quite literally!).
I was hospitalized and I knew right then and there that my dream of becoming an IPS was out of the question. I ploughed through my graduation with broken dreams and married an army officer. Life started to look because, even when I couldn’t become what I wanted to be, I was still serving the families of so many other army officers with essential skills like language training and cooking classes. It was an enriching period of my life and the feeling of helping people who serve the nation was hard to shake off. And then came the blow which I hadn’t quite anticipated.
During my C-section to birth my kid, the hospital officials injected in a wrong place in my spine and my right leg was paralysed from the waist. It was an unbelievable moment of agony and pain and the limp stuck with me. I needed help to wear clothes, and the feeling of being a burden loomed large over my head. People hardly understood my pain and there was a constant mention about how I was clueless with my life. I channelised all my hurt into making a wonderful person out of my son and spent every waking hour teaching him and grooming him into a kind-hearted, humble little kid.
As the years continued along with my one paralysed leg, life threw in a sweet surprise. My life crossed paths with ‘Saravanan’, the person behind ‘Amura’ foundation whose mission is to help people with chronic illness. I worked with him continuously and within a short period of time, there was a significant improvement in my leg; I could feel the sensations! The day on which this miracle unfolded continues to remain vivid in my memory. Bit by bit, my leg started showing improvement and for the first time in forever, I ran. This momentous occasion, the dream which I didn’t think I would ever live to see, finally materialised and I could almost envision every one of my cheerleaders from my sister, to my brother, my husband and my three best friends standing behind cheering me on!
And since this beautiful day, there has been no looking. I was taken on board as a full-time employee with Amura foundation as a health and nutrition expert where I have coached close to 400 plus individuals and helped them with their chronic illnesses. And life came full circle when my students and their family members wrote back to me with heartwarming grace as to how this incident changed their life for the best; the things they didn’t imagine achieving in this life was made possible for them.
My self-confidence improved tremendously and for the first time in forever, I started to smile at myself in mirrors. The people who looked down upon me started to see me with profound respect and started to look up to me. There’s a brilliant quote in the pursuit of happiness which I want to mention here. It goes like ‘Life is not what happened to me, but what I choose to become.’. And at the age of 31, I can say that I have chosen to become the best version of myself helping so many others in this spectrum to sail through the bridge and meet me at the other side.”