Till the time I was 10-year-old, everything in my life was going perfect. I was like any other child until my life changed completely. I used to stay in the US with my parents.
Just around that time, I started experiencing out of the ordinary symptoms. I experienced speech impairment and couldn’t walk properly. My parents were worried and took me to multiple doctors all around, but they failed to diagnose. After several failed treatments, they finally realised that I had – ‘Friedreich’s Ataxia’, a progressive neurological disease.
That mean, gradually, I wouldn’t be able to use my arms or legs, and my ability to speak would decline. It wasn’t an easy feat for a child who was so young. I recall how I was bullied because of the way I walked, something I couldn’t help.
Other kids would tease me. They called me, ‘Penguin’, but I had to put up a brave fight and had no choice. Eventually, my social life completely declined. I wasn’t accepted by many people, and every day felt like a struggle for my existence.
This continued until I reached my 20’s; I had lost complete faith in life, and the drive to live it fully had died. But that’s when my mom decided to bring me to India, for a change, and in the hope that I’d feel better.
When I came here, a lot of things changed for the better for me. I mingled with new people and started practising meditation. The change in environment after shifting to India made me realise that there was much more to life than just my disability.
It was almost as if I got a new lease of life — I found my purpose and decided that I wanted to help others.
I started giving small speeches by educating people about the importance of mental health and meditation. I even started writing a blog to erase the stigma behind disability and show that they have equal potential too.
I have been through many ups and downs, but I realised that I could either spend my life battling the inevitable or making the most of it, for the greater good.
