In 2006, 40-year old Army soldier MB Thapa was en route a training programme in Barabanki when their bus was attacked by local goons. Mr. Thapa was quick to fight back when suddenly one of the goons fired at him. The bullet injured his spine and left him paralysed waist down. But the disability did not change his will to remain active.
“It took some time to accept what had happened. But I began swimming and playing basketball which pushed me to excel myself,” he said. Mr. Thapa, a resident of Pune, participated in the Mumbai Marathon along with seven others from the Paraplegic Rehabilitation Center, a charitable organisation in Khadki, Pune, which fosters 91 soldiers with paraplegia. “Our body is capable, just the will is important,” said the soldier who had fought in the Kargil war in 1999.
Another soldier, Prem Kumar Ale (32), who was injured after falling off his bicycle while on the way to work, said disability is never physical. “One’s body is never disabled; it is always the mind that is,” said Mr. Ale, who plays badminton and has also won a medal in a tournament in Spain.
“Being bound by wheelchair or ridden to sticks does not mean there is nothing to do in the world,” he said.