Mumbai: Cycling for 500-odd kilometres from Manali to Khardung La (18,380 ft above sea level) via the world’s highest motorable road isn’t easy by any stretch of imagination. Vinod Rawat just did that, on a tandem cycle expedition organised by Pune-based Adventures Beyond Barriers. He has also done a motorbike ride from Mumbai to Leh and, he says, he has climbed every peak in his home State Maharashtra. As of this writing, he is out on the Save Rivers campaign, one of the few motorcyclists on the trip.
This isn’t a particularly unique set of accomplishments, even if you add on that Mr. Rawat is now 44. What makes it remarkable is that he did it with a prosthetic leg.
When he was six, a truck ran over him near his family home in Bhandup. He had to be hospitalised for six months, and eventually, because his parents could not raise the funds for a surgery in time, he had to have one leg amputated. Doctors told his parents that due to the effects of a botched operation, he would not be able to get fitted with a prosthesis. He recalls a childhood without much happiness. His friends stopped talking to him, he says, and he remembers having his crutches pulled. “My family too started looking at me with pity.” He started spending most of his time away from home and when he was 15, he joined a local gang of goons and ran away to be with them.
Turning point
But at 16, he met Isaac Swamidas, a kindly man, who, over time, gently guided him to an NGO called Bombay Teen Challenge, which worked with troubled youths. “This was the turning point in my life and with their help and support, I started moving in the right direction.”
He started working at Teen Challenge, first as a floor cleaner, then also making tea for the inmates. “We were asked to do such odd jobs with an aim to make us humble,” he says, and sure enough, things began to change. “I started going to school in Bhandup and passed the Class X exam.” He began getting involved in the NGO’s other activities, and soon, he was counselling other youth too.
The next big change happened at 27, when the Jaipur Foot Centre at KEM Hospital, Parel, designed a special prosthetic leg for him. “It was nothing short of a miracle. I had always cherished dreams of walking, running, riding, climbing, exercise. Now without the bondage of crutches, I could easily fulfil that dream.”
That year, he was also chosen for a leadership training programme in Portugal, where he met a lot of inspiring people and came back a more driven person. In 2001, when Gujarat was shaken by an earthquake, Mr. Rawat went to Anjar and Gandhidham and lived there for eight months. He helped with housing and rehabilitation projects and helped in building tents and houses for those who were displaced.
Also, when he got his new leg, he began cycling almost immediately. Just three days later, actually. In 2004, he participated for the first time in the Mumbai Marathon, and has run the half-marathon every year since then.
The next year, he left Bombay Teen Challenge and began a series of jobs, working as a sales representative and insurance agent, among other things.
Around then, he applied to be on the then-popular MTV Roadies show. He was rejected at an audition in Chandigarh, but in Mumbai, where he tried again, he progressed up to the finals, which brought him a measure of overnight — if transitory — fame, with posters featuring him being put up all over India. He even got to be in a few television commercials. This financial stability prompted him to propose to Vidya Tipathi, whom he had met while working with the Teen Challenge. They got married, and in 2006, they had a baby boy. But tragedy came hand-in-hand: Vidya died soon after child birth due to complications during the delivery. He continues to parent the boy with the help of his own parents.
Overcoming challenges
“I was completely shattered but decided to carry on with my life for the sake of my child,” he recalls. He continued to work in various companies and also started delivering inspirational lectures at corporate offices. He notes wryly that “the very people who rejected me during my childhood now invited me to give lectures and talks.” And he added climbing to his pursuits, joining a mountaineering club and climbing Linganagad in Raigad.
A couple of years later, he met Diana Peters, and fell in love. They married, and had a baby boy two years later. That year, he joined a motorcycle club and enrolled for a ride to Ladakh. “However, when they saw that I had an artificial limb, they told me that I cannot be the member of the group.” He wept that day, he says, but he also swore to persevere. And he decided also that he wouldn’t just do it for himself.
A few months later, he founded Convoy Control Club (C3 for short), an adventure club for people with physical disabilities, but also open to the able-bodied. Starting with three motorcyclists, it now has seven branches and 70 members and has organised biking expeditions to various parts of the country. C3 members also participate in endurance running and cycling events around the country, and organise treks and hikes.
In 2011, seven C3 members did a charity ride from Mumbai to Leh which raised around ₹18 lakh. “The money was donated for building houses for six families in Leh,” Mr. Rawat says.
Meanwhile, his marriage had broken up; in 2014, Ms. Peters left him along with their son, something he still has not come to terms with.
But he did not let the personal strife interfere with his C3 work, which has continued to scale new heights, quite literally. Like with an ascent of Kalsubai in Ahmednagar district, the highest peak in Maharashtra (1,645 m) in 2016, with seven people with disabilities from various parts of India.
He now wants to do more, expand the club, help more people with disability fulfil their potential. “There are many plans, but mobilising funds is the biggest hurdle.” And he has a personal goal too. Following in the footsteps of Arunima Sinha, India’s first amputee to accomplish the feat, he wants to climb the Everest.