“Our late president A.P.J. Abdul Kalam encouraged me to write a book and said people who read it will definitely connect to my journey,” said author Siddharth Jayakumar.
At the launch of his book, Simply being Sidds: My fight with life and god, at Vidya Sagar recently, Mr. Jayakumar, who has cerebral palsy, talked about how he had initially found it tough to revisit his past. “I am relieved that it is all in print and that people can read about my journey. It took me and my co-author, Umasree Raghunath, nearly a year to write the book,” the 37-year-old, an associate vice-president with IndusInd Bank, said.
Ms. Ragunath, a senior IT professional who had worked with Mr. Jayakumar a few years ago, said she too had been extremely keen that he pen down his journey. “Through this book, we have delved into various issues surrounding acceptance, equal status, accessibility, employability and inclusion for persons with disabilities. We would sit together every weekend for the last few months and write,” she said. Mr. Jayakumar said he planned to travel across the country to reach out to people and speak about how important inclusion is. “The money from the sale of the book will go towards initiatives that can further inclusion of the disabled,” he said.