For those who can't run ..

While I have been fortunate enough to run with a pair of healthy legs, my late brother Trideep, was not that fortunate. His one leg was affected by polio while he was six months old. As a kid I thought he would just walk one fine morning, but that never happened. I remember checking his leg early mornings only to be disappointed and the first time I had a hunch that God may not be of much help either:)

But Trideep was brought up by my middleclass parents really well that he didn't really worry about his problem when he grew up. They also tried their best to give him whatever treatment that they could afford or more. He didn't go to school till 5th standard, but being in a household that had 5 children, I guess he didn't miss much. He missed school later as well when he was in Bangalore for an extended treatment provided by an ex-army man who was known to do miracles on such problems. Though it didn't fix his problem, the strength of his leg improved a lot and he could walk a lot better with one hand on the knee and his caliper could be made simpler by reomving the hip support. 

Trideep grew into a confident young man with a very cool head on his shoulder and social skills far better than others in our family who had all the freedom  to wander around. He was liked by everyone for his sense of humor and guts(which was a bit too much at times). He loved going around and we have had many drives together up and down the western ghats on all possible routes from Bangalore to Kannur(or Kozhikode), which was very much enjoyable then, but a bit scary when you think about it now.  We also got special privileges when he was around and he didn't have a problem taking those - we could drive up all the way to the edge of Bakel fort whe

re visitors are not usually allowed.

He didn't really like his calipers though - while we were forcing him to use it, he liked the natural one hand on the knee with a bent gait. One of the problems with the caliper was that it was darn heavy, it used to be steel ones and the shoes were attached to it with no flexibility. It was just a leather one that didn't really look good compared to the Reebok and Nike shoes that others were wearing. While he was in Bangalore with me for a while we learned about Association of People with Disability who were making far better quality calipers. And it was not a pure business venture, but a charity organization as well. I was living very close to APD campus as well. They were making pretty cool fiber calipers and you can wear your shoe of choice, or no shoe as well. So we fixed him up a light weight fiber caliper and picked up a Reebok shoe for him as well. Unfortunately, he couldn't wear it for long - Trideep died in a road accident in March 1998 while on one of his road trips as a pillion on a bike while returning from Wynad to Kozhikode where he was doing Bachelor of Dental Science course.

I have been contributing by way of donations to APD and spreading the word since. Running events remind me that I was fortunate to have healthy legs to run (and play football) that many of these unfortunate people cannot. So APD is a good partner for charity collection during running to help these folks.  I had raised money for them during my Sunfeast 10K run last May and want to continue doing that while I run.

But instead of me being the middleman, I would encourage everyone who wants to contribute to do it directly (and may be get involved), either using the online donate page  or sending a check directly to them(or you can hand it over to me) favoring "The Association of People with Disability"  at the following address,

The Association of People with Disability
6th Cross, Hutchins Road,
Off Henner Main Road, Lingarajapuram,
St. Thomas Town Post, Bangalore
India 560 084