Hi
Pasting below a posting which did not get to the list.
Harish Kotian
Quoting:
The Hindu:
THE REAL HERO
SOMA BASU
The Hindu STRENGTH AND ENDURANCE: S.Ramakrishnan. Photo: S. James
S. Ramakrishnan, advocate for people with disabilities, says the only way to
face oddities in life is to get on with your life.
"My body does not work. I have no sensation neck down. But I am still me."
After 37 years in a wheelchair, S. Ramakrishnan, founder-president of Amar Seva
Sangam (ASS) in Tirunelveli, smiles when he tells the story of his life. That
smile reveals his inner convictions and proves that life does not end with a
grievous injury.
"I didn't want to belong to the dead," he adds. "The Almighty and the people
around me believed that I could take care of myself."
And he did. After a near-fatal accident when he was barely 20, he learned to
live all over again. Today he heads the country's largest establishment
offering services for the differently abled in rural areas. The Sangam
rehabilitates and empowers people with physical and mental impairment. In its
three decades, it has embraced 330 villages in four blocks of Tirunelveli
District touching a population of six lakhs.
Just back from Mumbai after receiving the IBN7 Super Idols Award for Lifetime
Achievement-2012, Ramakrishnan says, "Life is all about choices. The ability to
succeed is a direct reflection of the ability to try."
"The date was 10th January, a cold winter morning in Bangalore in 1975."
Ramakrishnan's razor sharp memory battles daily with his limp body.
He remembers names and faces, every minor and major date and incident in his
life as if it happened yesterday.
The youth from Ayikudy, five kilometres from Tenkasi, had left for the big city
to live his dream. A Fourth Year mechanical engineering student at the
Government College of Technology in Coimbatore and an NCC cadet, he was
enthusiastic about a career in the Navy.
Ramakrishnan recalls the gruelling rounds of interviews and endurance tests
spread over four days. In the final round on the last day, he was asked to
negotiate 10 obstacles in three minutes. In the fourth obstacle he had to leap
15 feet from a tree on to a platform and another 10 feet to the ground.
"I was in a hurry and fell on my back. Obviously God had other plans for me,"
he says. There was no external injury but the crash dislocated and fractured
his cervical spine. "I remember telling the guards who lifted me that my hands
are missing and to search for them in the grounds. They lifted and showed me my
hands still attached to my shoulders. The loss of sensation was instant."
The battle begins
He battled medical complications for 19 months at the Air Force Hospital in
Kirkee, Pune. As his batchmates came to visit him before the start of the
academic year, he realized he would not finish the course.
At the hospital, he found his guide and friend in orthopaedist Air Marshall Dr.
Amar Singh Chahal, after whom, six years later, he named his Sangam. "He taught
me to acquire wheelchair independence. He prepared me to understand that I will
have to live the rest of my life with a dysfunctional body and never be able to
do any of those things I took for granted earlier."
Once Ramakrishnan returned to his village, he began learning to live with his
disability. He developed leg spasms. He couldn't lift his hands even to slap a
mosquito. His sweat glands became non-functional and he became intolerant to
variation in temperatures due to profuse sweating. The initial years were tough
but his parents, siblings, friends, neighbours, relatives and later his wife
stood by him.
"Once I realized there was no denying my condition, I was keen to know what was
in store for me. I wanted to continue living life to the fullest." Ramakrishnan
toyed with the idea of starting a printing press or a match stick factory. And
there were times when he was depressed. "But I couldn't have even committed
suicide without anybody's help," he laughs. The radio was his constant
companion, and it was during the International Year of the Disabled in 1981
that some programmes and the advice of a relative sparked off a dream.
He started a school for children with disabilities on a piece of land gifted by
his parents, with five students under a thatched shed.
He simultaneously launched health awareness camps in the villages and started
gaining recognition among the locals.
Publicity helped
Sivasankari's article on ASS in a magazine earned him public trust and support.
A friend's father wrote about ASS's work to the then President of India and to
cricketer Vijay Merchant. Merchant then invited him to Mumbai, where another
newspaper article made his work known.
Today, the ASS's comprehensive services are spread over a campus of 30 acres
supporting more than 300 families who have physically or mentally challenged
kids. Ramakrishnan's self-rehabilitation, spirit of service and sense of
independence attract people to him who willingly offer their services. One of
them is S. Shankar Raman, currently the secretary of ASS, who has muscular
dystrophy. The other is his wife, Chitra, who was earlier a teacher at ASS. "I
did not take sympathy on him but fell in love with his spirit and commitment. I
look after him, but he looks after so many disadvantaged others," she says.
The organization and its founder have won many awards. "It is the recognition
of my team's work," says Ramakrishnan. A dedicated band of teachers, doctors
and other staff teaches skills in daily activities and provides education and
vocational training.
The students get free shelter, food, clothing, transportation, mobility
appliances, physiotherapy and medical attention. As a result, they are daring
to dream. Many are also living their dreams.
What Ramakrishnan dreamt as a young boy did not happen. "But what I had not
planned has also happened. Nobody leads a predictable or problem-free life. It
all depends on how we react to every situation."
"God keeps my spirits up," he says. "And I am blessed to have helpful friends
and family as support system. In my next birth, I wish to help all those who
helped me in this
With thanks and regards
(Rajesh Asudani)
Assistant General Manager
Reserve Bank of India
Nagpur
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