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Babu, 'Babu Communications', South Indian Coir Mats Society Building, Alappuzha |
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“You have 2 choices: either you can depend on others and slowly surrender to death or you can lead your own life,” Dr.Suranjan Bhattacharya advised Babu, who was paralysed below the waist following an accident at the worksite and who had come to the Medical College at Velloor for treatment. The doctor added: “You have to walk at least 12 hours a day.”
To someone who needed the help of his hands just to move his paralysed legs, that seemed a tall order. And yet, Babu, a skilled welder in a well known fabrication company before the accident, decided to try. There were other compelling reasons. The compensation from the company had just been sufficient to marry off his sister. The helplessness of his aged parents and the creeping presence of hunger, made him remember what the doctor said a year ago.
Like a small child training himself to take the first steps, after painful trials and frustrating failures, Babu taught himself to take a few steps using crutches. For 6 long years he went on with the training but by then poverty had come to stay in his uncompleted house.
It was then that he started a telephone booth to earn a living. After the physiotherapy and exercise in the morning, Babu prepares himself to go to the booth in the evening. A servant lowers his legs from bed to floor and he raises his body and takes charge of his movement. Beyond 150 metres of laborious walk, an autorickshaw takes him to the booth at Alappuzha.
Today Babu is an employer of 3 persons: the girl who sits in the booth during day time, the young man who runs it at night and the lady who helps him in his house.
He has gratitude to many, apart from the doctor. A friend who regularly provides urine bags costing Rs.180 per week, the auto driver who picks him from the booth at night and brings him back home and accompanies him upto the bed and who never accepts any money, other auto drivers, the bank that has provided the finance and the customers who use his booth…
Courtesy: Santhosh John, Malayala Manorama, December 7, 2003
Contributed by: Administrator
