Scaling Mighty Obstacles

While cricket pundits were splitting their hairs over why Sachin Tendulkar's footwork is no longer what it used to be, an Indian athlete with a congenital disability in left foot had his leap-of-faith moment at London paralympics.
 
Girisha Hosanagara Nagarajegowda, a 24-year-old from Karnataka did the country proud by winning its first ever silver medal and that too in a physically demanding event like high jump. Paralympic games are a regular feature and happens after the conclusion of every olympics. But the event comes nowhere near the viewfinder of the country's media or its collective conscious. The reasons are not far to seek. Firstly the country's sports culture is nothing much to write home about and secondly the society's attitude towards disability oscillates from callous disregard to downright patronizing.
 
Somehow this year, after the country's best ever showing at Olympics, the TV cameras lingered on in London. Quite predictably controvesies soon followed and got greater visibility. An Indian power lifter Farman Basha had complained that he was not provided with an escort and even his coach was not allowed to stay with him.
 
But nobody in their wildest dreams thought India would open its account at the games. In fact few people were even aware that the country had sent a contingent for paralympics.
 
Now that Girisha has won a medal government and other agencies are doling cash awards and other trappings that come with sporting achievements. But I am sure it will be far too modest compared with other Olympic medal winners and microscopic when compared with IPL pampered cricketers.
 
Reading about his life one gets a snapshot of how miserable it is to be born poor and handicapped in our country. Most notably how these sections of population can no way access medicare. Girisha was born with a defect, which was curable. But his parents could not afford the surgery required to rectify it.
 
In our counry to be hadicapped and be able to lead a semblance of normal life is in itself a major struggle. Hence to take part in a sport like high jump is asking for the moon. Hence no adjective in the dictionary would be apt enough to describe Girisha's achievement.

Saina Nehwal's kind gesture
The badminton ace was so touched by Girisha's feat that she decided to gift him Rs 2 lakh. Hope our Ferrari/BMW driving sports stars (read cricketers) take cue from it.

Also Read: Bangalore Beat