Impossible Doesn't Exist

When 38-year-old Madhu Bagri started playing tennis from a wheelchair early in 2013, many people advised her against it. “Wheelchair tennis is physically demanding because you are using the same limbs—your arms for moving the wheelchair and playing the sport while balancing yourself,” she explains.  Besides her disability, her age was another handicap they said. “Since I started playing this sport only at 38 many wondered whether enough years were left for me to achieve much. But I was determined,” she says. In August 2013, Madhu became the first Indian paraplegic tennis player to play in an International Tennis Federation event when she participated in a wheelchair tennis tournament in Bangkok. In November the same year, she won the 3rd National Paralympic Wheelchair Tennis Championship in Bangalore pipping a 23-year-old opponent.






Madhu Bagri won the 3rd National Paralympic Wheelchair Tennis Championship in November 2013.







Sonal & Bhavina won gold at the Paralympics Table Tennis International Ranking Tournament in Bangkok in 2013.






Parul Parmar this badminton player and Arjuna Awardee has won several international golds.

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“I believe that the mind conquers all. I have been able to achieve what I did with a strong mind and vision,” she says. It all started with a simple wish to stay fit. “While working in a financial company a couple of years back, I felt the need for exercise to stay fit and lose weight, but my physical challenges posed limitations as I could not walk, jog or gym. Then I remembered playing badminton from my chair at home and enrolled at the Ahmedabad Government Employees Tennis Association. There I was fascinated by tennis and soon began to learn it,’’ Madhu says. “Through the Internet, I learnt about competitive wheelchair tennis which has grown steadily since 1992 and began to look for a coach. I found one in Pramesh Modi, owner of Ace Tennis Academy, who prepared me to go for the Bangkok ITF tournament,’’ she says.



Doctors declared Madhu to be paraplegic when she was one-and-a-half-years old. After a spinal surgery in seventh grade, she left school and studied till graduation through correspondence.



Parasports (sports adapted for players with mental or physical disabilities) needs support she says. Madhu feels universal accessibility is a major issue in India. “Disability can be physical, mental, permanent, temporary and even age-induced, but there is little concern about making buildings, public transport and sports facilities accessible for senior citizens, the physically challenged, patients of debilitating disorders or those with short-term issues like pregnancy,’’ she points out.



Badminton player and Arjuna Awardee Parul Parmar (40) says the disabled often carry social and psychological baggage too. “Families tend to look at the disabled child in a different light. Either they are neglected and treated as a burden or excessively protected. In either case, they lose confidence. When I ask children at institutions for the disabled to participate in sports they are hesitant and conscious about their physical problems even to the extent of avoiding clothes that would reveal their disability. This attitude needs to change,” says Parul. “Fortunately, my parents were very supportive. I was affected by polio at age three and later even fractured the same leg which then had to be operated. The doctor advised exercise. My father, himself a state-level player, took me to Sachivaliya Gymkhana in Gandhinagar. Coaches like Surendra Parikh and Hasmukh Savaliya encouraged me. I grew up playing badminton with able-bodied children,” Parul says. In 2002-3, Parul won gold in the singles and mixed doubles at the World Cup and Commonwealth Games for disabled badminton players. She also won gold in the singles at an international event in Germany in 2009. “Sponsorship is difficult to get for sportspeople in India and even more so for parasports. It was mostly my father (an engineer with the government) who paid for my travels,” she says. “I was the first disabled sportsperson from Gujarat to win an Arjuna Award. I feel many state honours I deserved did not come my way because there is no category for disabled. While countries such as China and Malaysia have special training programmes for parasports, these are lacking in India,’’ she rues. Parul and international swimmer Kiran Tak (27) from Rajasthan smashed yet another barrier in 2012 when they became the first disabled female athletes to earn the NIS coaching diploma in badminton and swimming.



“We have won medals despite competing against players from countries with better technologies and expertise in training disabled players,’’ says Bhavina Patel, 27, an international table tennis player.



Bhavina and Sonal Patel, 26, who won gold at the Paralympics Table Tennis International Ranking Tournament in Bangkok in 2013, say disabled athletes need support not sympathy. In October 2013, Bhavina became the first Indian to win a silver medal at the ITTF PTT Asian Table Tennis. “I joined the Blind People’s Association school to gain computer skills and here we got exposure to parasports. I don’t want to limit my aspirations due to my handicap,’’ she says. “Supported by BPA, we have participated in tournaments in Thailand, China, Jordan, Delhi, Bangalore.”



However, Sonal and Bhavina feel parasports athletes are short-changed. “An able bodied athlete gets sports quota benefits in government jobs. Most such opportunities are denied to us. Like parents everywhere, ours want us to settle down. Unless we get jobs that let us pursue sports, how can they support us in our sporting aspirations?” asks Sonal. “We believe we are as capable as able-bodied people. We do everything from studies to sports to commuting to house work. We do not want sympathy, we just want our rights to be counted as athletes who are doing their country proud by winning international medals.”




Source : The New Indian Express , 4th Jan 2014