Two golds...and many more to win!

INDIANS BRING home a medal haul of 13 golds, 5 silvers and a bronze from an international sports event. We are not quoting from Ripley's Believe It or Not. The above statement is true.

The 16 member strong Indian contingent to the Dutch Open Championships for the disabled, came home recently, bent with the weight of medals hanging from their necks. For all of them, getting to Netherlands was the greatest hurdle - the actual challenge.

All of them struggled to get there, financially and some of them even physically. While the group comprised largely of the orthopaedically challenged, Chennai based Prathap Simha Netaji was the only visually impaired sportsman to get as far as Netherlands and represent India. Even he didn't make it-nearly. As he missed a chance to go to New Zealand last year to attend another international competition. This time, however, he managed to make enough money, around Rs. 78,000, thanks to the benevolence of friends, relatives and other contacts.

Prathap, whose both eyes are affected by the degenerative visual disorder RP, picked up a couple of golds in the javelin and shot put events. Though he was registered for the shot put event as well, he could not participate as he was delayed because he could not navigate to the venue on time. ``I found it difficult to get to the place by myself and therefore was late. I could not participate in the event,'' he says. However, it was ironical that he had the longest throw in the event, when he managed to convince the organisers that he wanted to take a shot at it `anyway'. However, he did not qualify for any prize.

Very much a self trained person, Prathap has worked as a medical transcriptionist and now works as a teacher in a private school. His list of accomplishments, though, are quite significant, despite his crippling disability. He has cleared his UGC and JRF, completed ICWA-Inter and is hoping to be placed at a University in Palani. Why Palani?

Prathap's primary aim is to get to Palani so that he could take Siddha medication that seems to improve his eye sight. Though doctors in Sankara Nethralaya insisted in 1993, he would become completely blind, the siddha treatment gives him atleast blurred central vision.

However, without a letter from the HR and CE department, it seems unlikely that he will be able to land the job. But then, as is his nature, it is just another battle for him.

By Ramya Kannan

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