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He underwent four brain surgeries.  A part of his brain had to be kept in the freezer for five months.  And yet Advocate Ajith Raj came back from the brink of incapacitation and oblivion to be a wheelchair-bound counselor bringing solace to those suffering from pain in the mind.

A small slip of the foot but a great consequence for life, such was the story of his accident.  While walking by the roadside at Mannuthy, Thrissur, he slipped and fell down.  At the Jubilee Mission Hospital, the doctors performed the first of the neuro-surgeries to remove the dead tissues in the brain. 

The bulging of the brain was threatening to press against the skull and so doctors had to remove a portion of it and keep it in the freezer.  Another surgery to remove the fluid in the brain and subsequent complications in kidney, eye etc left him bereft of speech.

But by the relentless effort of the physiotherapist, he was slowly able to utter the word ‘amma’.

It was then that the director of the hospital suggested that Ajith enroll himself as a counselor.  A bed-ridden patient suppressing his physical pain to ease the mental anguish of his clients at the other end of the telephone line was indeed novel.  When this became media news, the calls seeking his help naturally increased.

Initially he was asked to attend to the needs of students.  However, his help was soon sought into bigger domestic issues.  It was then that he felt like starting a legal consultancy.  “Your one word is enough to bring the desperate ones back to life,” Justice K.Padmanabhan had encouraged him.

Ajith’s next effort was to master handwriting.  After much effort, he could not make any headway.  Undaunted, he strived on.  One day he signed his bank cheque in favour of his father and the officials passed it.  He had passed the acid test of putting his signature after a long struggle. 

Courtesy: Santhosh John Thooval (text), Josekutty Panakkal (photo), Vanitha, October 15-31, 2009
Contributed by: Administrator

"Sorrow is knowledge."