Growing up with polio
I am going to explain my life struggles and show you should never lose hope due to any reason of your life. When I was 5 months old, I suffered polio disease by injection. My parents tried to help me recover, but success was difficult.
As time passed, I grew up and started to attend school. I was average in my studies, but I tried hard. When I completed my secondary exam, I was admitted to Vishakhapatnam Hospital for an operation on both of my legs. At that time, I suffered very much in school but my friends were very supportive. I am very thankful to have them. My parents were also very supportive and always encouraged me.
After my operations I felt very weak, but I managed myself during that time. I didn’t want to study because my classes were on the 3rd and 4th floor. I studied in North Gujarat Palanpur School. They never agreed to run classes on the ground floor, so I used tricycle.
Working with Diamonds
In 1996, I started working at my cousin’s office. I traveled to the office with a four wheeler scooter. After two years they started giving me a salary of 1,000 Rupees per month. After five years, my salary increased to 5,000 rupees, but I was not satisfied with my job. At that time my father had a heart attack. Since I’m the oldest in my family, all of the responsibilities were put on me. We had no cash, but my father’s goodwill was well respected in the diamond market. I left my job and started polish diamond trading in Palanpur.
Finding Love With another polio survivor
After some time, the market condition was slowing down so I started traveling by bus one time a week to Ahmadabad to purchase diamonds. It’s one hundred fifty kilometers away from my town. I would walk by my hands, and not use a wheelchair. In between I connected with Ahmadabad (NGO) and met Dipali. She also had polio problem in both legs. She lived 25 km far away from Ahmadabad. My friend and I talked with her parents on the phone. After we decided to visit her home and meet with her. Both of us liked each other and our families met. We got married within six months.Today, we are married with two cute boys. One is 10 years old and the second is 6 years old. Both of our children are normal. I have a plan for buying diamonds from Surat and want to grow my business. After 7 years living in Ahmadabad, we moved to Surat. My firm's name is "Shashwat Gems." Today, I am a buyer and supplier of cut and polished diamonds. I supply diamonds to jewellery manufacturing companies from the last five years without any marketing. My office is on the 2nd floor and I go to the office everyday from 10am to 8pm by my vehicle, which is disabled friendly. I have three people who work for me and they are very supportive. I complete each and every duty and do all my work with honesty. We plan on starting a Web Portal GGDA (Global Group for Differently Abled). Our goal is to encourage and motivate disabled people and their families. In this web portal, useful information will be posted which will be very useful for disabled people.
Disability is not a curse
After all odds in my life, I never lose hope and continue to live my life with my confidence. Disability is not a curse and disabled people have more strength and power allowing them to do the best by their efforts and hard working. My message to all people who never underestimate the physically disabled person’s ability and always try to help them in many ways because they also have equal rights for living their lives.
One more important message to my disabled friends is to not try to hide your internal strength and start believing that God gave you some abilities and you can win. We are all here for some special reason, so stop being a helpless person. Become the architect of your future. Always keep in mind that you have not been handicapped by your condition. I’m physically challenged and differently abled. I’m very thankful to my parents, colleagues and friends who always encouraged and supported me on the way of my life.
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