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March 17, 2013
Pulling out all the stops
Asha Sridhar
GEARED UP FOR CHALLENGES:Madhavi Latha who participated in the annual car rally for the blind.Photo: R. Ragu
Asha Sridhar
Through the windowpane of her car, P. Madhavi Latha
looked like any other enthusiastic contestant at the Annual Car Rally
for the Blind- gearing up to drive with the help of instructions given
by a visually-impaired person who was armed with a Braille route map.
However, as she opened the door and her heart out, the 43-year old
paralympic swimming champion revealed almost casually, her remarkable
journey from having to be lifted by her brother and father to be taken
to school in Sathupalli in Khamman district, to winning three gold
medals in the severely disabled category at the 11{+t}{+h}National
Paralympic Swimming Competition held in Kolhapur. “I do not have any
negative feelings, because I can do everything that a normal person can
do,” said the effervescent Madhavi, who was affected by Polio when she
was seven months old. Today, the general secretary of the Paralympic
Swimming Association of Tamil Nadu and associate vice-president, Scope
International, she spearheads initiatives to make sporting, and
particularly swimming facilities more accessible to the
differently-abled.
“It took great effort to find a
house which was disabled-friendly and had a car park facility,” she
said. She recalled how she appeared as a private candidate to pass Class
XII in Sathupalli, took special permission to write the ‘logic’ paper
as she was the only student, got a BA in maths and public
administration, and fought for a hard-earned banking job in the public
sector. “I had to learn English when I moved to Hyderabad,” said Madhavi
who had studied in Telugu medium.
“When I left my
bank job in Hyderabad to join my current job, my extended family
initially opposed as they thought that I would not be able to handle the
work pressure,” she said. In 2007, when her health deteriorated because
of muscular weakness, she had two options- a high-risk spinal surgery
or Hydrotherapy. And, the first time she entered water, she felt
liberated.
“I was free from the walker, and in water I
could do movements which I can’t on ground. The water took care of my
weight,” she said. Having learnt swimming on her own with the help of a
tube, she called for more coaches who are trained in teaching
differently-abled persons swimming. Madhavi, who learnt to drive a
two-wheeler in 1999 and a car in 2004 , has been putting off the
decision to get herself a new car. “It took me around four months to get
this car modified,” she said with one hand on the steering wheel of her
hand-operated Maruti Zen.
(
A column about people who have beat the odds and won
.)
Link for the Article:
http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-downtown/pulling-out-all-the-stops/article4517557.ece
