Karnataka - Bidar   

He rose again from the depths of despair

Rishikesh Bahadur Desai

BRAVE FARMER: Ramulu with his artificial limbs

Bidar: The irrigation pumpset made a cracking sound when it ran out of lubricant oil. Pouring some oil in the small tank at the top would set it right, thought Ramulu. The farmer reached for the lid of the oil tank.

When he regained consciousness, he was in hospital. He had received a severe electric shock from the pumpset and had been thrown six feet away.

An even greater shock awaited him. Doctors had amputated part of his arms and legs. If his limbs had not been amputated they would have become gangrenous, the doctors told him.

After he recuperated, his friends carried him home. Ramulu did not know what to do. The small farmer from Medak in Andhra Pradesh was married and had two small children. He had no idea how to feed his family.

To make ends meet, his wife began to grow vegetables on the farm and also worked in the fields of other farmers. This saddened him deeply. "I would lie like a log while my wife worked. She had to assist me even to go to the toilet. I felt I was useless and even thought of suicide more than once," says Ramulu.

One day, someone told him about a camp being conducted in a nearby town by the Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Institute for the Physically Handicapped. He went there with his wife. Doctors assessed his disability and fitted him with artificial limbs, free of cost.

Now he can walk on his own and do small things with his hands like lift a bottle, drink water and pick up a pen from inside a box.

He sells vegetables at the village market. He has petitioned to the Government to give him a job. "Then I can give my sons a better education," he says.

He narrated his story when he came to attend a disability assessment camp here on Wednesday.

He wanted to meet doctors because the artificial limb on his right leg was getting loose. Technicians tightened it and he went away happy.

"Artificial limbs are not substitutes for natural ones. But they provide functional mobility. Having them is far better than living with amputated limbs," says Harish Gupta," Deputy Director of the Institute.

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