“Courage is not having the strength to
go on; it is going on when you don't have the strength.” Theodore Roosevelt
He appeared young, and looked striking as he faced the interview
held by a famous news channel. The line ‘ I desperately wanted to walk
though the doctors had said that I would remain
handicapped, a stumbling block for the rest of my life’ trapped my
attention. I saw a handsome face called Vikram who was a Tamil Actor, despite
the fact that he had acted in a few Hindi movies too. An accident had kept him
immobile for a long period of four years, but now when I saw the clips of his
movies it reminded me of the grit in man. He said he was forty eight years old although
he seemed in his early thirty's. There was
a seeming goodness in his eyes and conduct which he attributed to the difficult
experience in life that has always kept him grounded regardless of his growing
success.
A torrent Memories pushed me
back to the year 2000 that was a century
leap year. They said it was a new Millennium, but for me it was a fantastic
year as we moved to Hyderabad
to live in our own fla t, with my sister as my
neighbour. My son was around five years old, enthusiastic about all his
uncles,aunts and cousins at Hyderabad ,
it was ind eed eventful. My son was welcomed in
the same school as my niece, I nev er
needed to worry about him as she was close at hand to be bothered about him
more than me.
One fateful day as I was sending off my son to the school in the
regular auto-rickshaw, my right foot came under the wheel of the
vehicle owing to my negligence. I howled, the rickshaw halted, the driver and
my sister consoled and helped me reach back home. Though the foot was swollen
it was normal in a couple of days. Still later I joined the Hindu Public School
as a teacher. The school was a three storyed building and my foot twisted due
the high heeled shoes while climbing the stairs. This time neither the pain
subsided nor did the swelling. I was taken to the sports specialist at Apo llo when the
leg remained same under the local physician’s medication. The sports specialist
got all the tests like the x-ray, colour Doppler test and many more. The
medication prescribed comforted as long as it lasted. My family and the school
authorities helped me every day to continue the job while the maid brought the
vegetables and helped me in other ways at home. I was also advised to tie a crepe bandage “a stretchable bandage that is used to create localized
pressure". I had one for the night and one for school. As days went by I would
wake up in the middle of the night due to an excruciating pain, initially I
tried popping pain killers but after the effect of the pain killer subsided I
was back to square one. Each day by evening the foot would be swollen and
painful, the X ray now revealed a bent bone in the foot as I had stopped using
the foot reminding me of Lamarck’s theory of use and disuse.
I decided to attempt Ayurveda, Ayurvedic medicine is a system of Hindu traditional medicine of
Vedic tradition native to the Indian subcontinent, and a form of alternative
medicine(wikipedia). There was an Ayurvedic doctor who
had a small Ayurvedic hospital near my house. The Ayurvedic doctor put me on a
medicine containing guggulu, the resin of the
guggul plant, known as guggulu is an important component of
all Ayurvedic medicine. She told me that the medicine was
a powerful one and that I would bounce back to normalcy, I definitely wanted to
return to normalcy. I would sometimes perceive
the swollen foot smirk at me menacingly
triggering me to eat the medicine zealously. The medicine did bring a change one
fine morning when I found myself hopelessly covered with rashes. When we went
back to the doctor, she said that Ayurveda could cure a person mostly through guggulu based medicines which
sometimes did not suit the patient and advised me to go for homeopathy.
My family adviced me to stop doctor shopping and so I did it,but one
fine day I saw a Homeopathic clinic at Mehdipatnam where my father lived. Homeopathy (i/ˌhoʊmiˈɒpəθi/;
also spelled homoeopathy;
from the Greek: ὅμοιος hómoios, "-like" and πάθος páthos, "suffering") is a system of alternative
medicine created in 1796 by Samuel Hahnemann based on his doctrine of like cures
like, whereby a substance that causes the symptoms of a disease
in healthy people will cure similar symptoms in sick people.(wikipedia).
The doctor seemed to be a considerate person and said that Homeo medicines take a long time, but the result would be an eyeopener. My brother an Allopath refused to comment. A few weeks later I sensed only pain andnev er saw any change in
the swelling. I limped and could see people eyeing me sympathetically, but
nothing changed. It was difficult wearing my shoes as one of the pair would
slip out while the other one refused to fit. Days went on, I had lost hopes of
any recovery. Looking at my misery my
brother taught me to concentrate and meditate to relax, but when the mind is
disturbed there is no power to focus. The pain refused to let me sleep, kept me
hooked to painkillers, the excessive pain killers caused a burst of capillaries
and so I tried reducing the dose. I went for physiotherapy sessions, but it was
of no avail. They called it synovitis and I felt it was end of my wit. It was
nearly two years when we moved to Pune. The day my husband and son took me to Durga Tekdi the forest, I
sat near the entrance unable to walk.
The doctor seemed to be a considerate person and said that Homeo medicines take a long time, but the result would be an eyeopener. My brother an Allopath refused to comment. A few weeks later I sensed only pain and
My feet could not carry me even half a
meter beyond the entrance. My son loved the place, and described the man made lake
in it and wanted to visit it each day. Each day he would
gently guide me a step more. I saw the convulsed, the paralytic, the accident
victims in crutches and many more in worse situations than me trudging the
forest hill while I sat besieged in pity. That day I understood that a firmness of my mind and a persistence to
recover would del iver
me from my situation. Each day after that my little son helped me walk more and
exercise my hurt foot till the day I began walking the two km stretch. I could
now climb the hill too. I slipped unfortunately once again, but now I knew the
secret of coming back again. I understood that people gained strength through
fatalities and persisted through their determination. Life has ups and
downs, but only the obstinate are able to build through their ability to understand
adversities in life with a drive to lead life where they would love leading it. My foot is back to the shapely self and has
remained a symbol to spring back through a resilience of positive thoughts of
learning.
“Destiny and fate are of one’s own
making, and riches and happiness are rarely found at the end of an
easily-traversed path.” ― Chris Murray,
Very touching words ma'am, my son too hearing me read, he asked me to translate few lines in Hindi....its true the more we highlight our problems our worries to ourselves we will never be able to stand on our feet...then every day would be puffy foot for us....the moral of the story say's never never give up, just move on positively...
ReplyDeleteKeep writing ma'am. All the best!
Rgds,
Priya menon
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