A man without arms and legs travelled the world, authored motivating books, inspired millions and is a world renowned hero. We all know Nick Vujicic, the Australian who was born to conquer the world with his incredible sense of inspiration, but no arms and limbs. Do we know Raja Mahendra Pratap?
Let us, for a frame of reference, call him the Nick Vujicic of India. Although, this man has battled a lot of different hardships and has conquered much less, for not many of us have deemed it important to commend the intensely inspiring life of Raja Mahendra Pratap from Andhra Pradesh. No, he doesn’t travel the world and inspire millions, but his life is a message in itself that makes us wonder why will power is such a rare gift after all.
Raja Mahendra Pratap played a little game of holding an iron rod over a high voltage electric wire that amputated his arms and legs at the age of 5. Life suddenly changed from a fun filled childhood to a miserable isolation within the four walls of his room – for 10 long years! Pratap could no longer walk or even self-sustain his life, and maybe it was natural for his father to consider him a burden.
While 10 years of isolation from the world might have easily amputated his spirits as well, Pratap did not let that happen. He learnt to walk on his knees, studied from his sisters’ materials and prepared himself for the outside world that awaited his legendary story. Availing a meager scholarship at the age of 16 facilitated his education, and Pratap is a Finance and MBA degree holder from Osmania University.
Well, the world did not go easy on the man with no arms to fight it. Instead, there were only questions and rejections for his abilities to carry out a job when he sought one. However, after a former job, Pratap is today the Finance and Accounts Officer in ONGC Ahmadabad.
He walks the streets, climbs the stairs of his office, writes and uses the computer with his arms and mouth and accomplishes every task assigned to him with absolutely no excuse. And the best part of all? He is a donor of scholarships for students like himself who cannot afford education within his vicinity.
Raja Mahendra Pratap is an example for people who are considerably ‘blessed with a normal bosy’ but yet don’t feel comfortable in their skin. Pratap never fringes from the reality that he has no arms and limbs, and prefers that people around him acknowledge the same. That doesn’t mean he gets excuses from tasks, he is in fact, the first one to take up new responsibilities at his work place. After 10 years of isolation, today Raja Mahendra Pratap sets the standards for self-sustenance.
We do realize that physically disabled individuals deserve to be treated like everyone, but it can’t be wrong to flaunt their accomplishments a little more than the rest. After all, how many of us can imagine living in isolation for 10 years, with no arms and limbs, and yet turn out to be an incredible asset to the country? When the country fringes from ‘leaders’ who stand in power yet cause no progress, people like Raja Mahendra Pratap are the ones that keep the hope in progress intact.
