“As long as I remember, I’ve always been on a wheelchair but the disability never bothered me. I loved going to school; I was great at academics! I'd have doctor appointments but after, my parents would take me to the beach and we’d make a day out of it. I’d tell my friends that I’m going out on a picnic; I didn’t want anyone to pity me.
In my 10th, I prepared extra hard for my exams– I wanted to get admission based on merit and not through the disability quota; I was on cloud nine when I scored 95%. But during the felicitation ceremony, people said– ‘You’ve scored so well despite your wheelchair’, news reporters bombarded me about my disability. I didn’t like the fact that people were treating me specially.
So, I continued focusing on my academics and got into a reputed engineering college. In fact, I was the first wheelchair student there! The next few months were great, until I fell ill– I had to be put on a ventilator. My exams were coming up so my relatives asked me to skip the semester– ‘Koi light course kar lo.’
But I was adamant; I appeared for my exams with an oxygen cylinder and to everyone’s surprise, got a distinction. When I graduated, my principal said, ‘Because of you, I’m confident about admitting more disabled students in our college.’
After engineering, I was looking forward to getting a job but in the final round, the HR said, ‘Sorry, we wouldn’t be able to offer you a job.’ They didn’t have provisions for disabled people! I was shattered. Once again, in spite of my achievements, I was made to feel different.
But instead of expecting others to change things for me, I decided to do something about it and started my own company to provide training and job opportunities to differently-abled people. Papa discouraged me because he felt that I was too young, but mom said, ‘If you can change even a single person’s life,do it!’
People praised me, but none of them were willing to invest. So, I did everything single-handedly and convinced my father to invest. I was scared– ‘What if it doesn’t work? What if I lose the money?’
But 3 years later, I’m so happy I took the risk– my firm has successfully given jobs to over 30 differently abled. When we placed a paralysed single mother with a multinational company, I’ll never forget what she said to me– ‘I'm so lucky I met you; you’ve changed my life.’
Today I’m also pursuing my Masters. My team has grown and my hustle has just begun. I won’t stop until I incubate the next Stephen Hawking; that’s my dream.
It feels amazing when youngsters from all over the country reach out to me; The only thing we want are equal opportunities. None of us see our disability as a setback– it’s only a matter of perception.”
With Thanks
#WorldEntrepreneursDay
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