In 1983 American Art Berg suffered a major head concussion and a broken neck in a car accident and ended up becoming a quadriplegic. But he showed immense resilience, fighting back to prove doctors wrong and then wrote a great book, The Impossible Just Takes a Little Longer. The title of the book has become a saying, a pole star of hope for all in utter despondency.
Deepa Malik’s battle for life is no less sparkling, if not more in so many ways. This is the autobiography of a lady who fought multiple spinal tumours and paralysis from a young age, overcame unsettling and disparaging social distances in a deeply unfeeling, patriarchal society, then suffered multiple personal losses in adulthood, including waist-down paralysis and yet rose to become India’s most celebrated Paralympics star. She was awarded the Padma Shri, the Arjuna Award and the Khel Ratna.
If Berg’s book became synonymous with grit and determination, Deepa Malik’s Bring It on will metamorphose into another maxim, another pole star to look up to from the depths of despair. The book will remain as an inspiration for thousands in situations they thought they could never surmount.
The book is simple, direct and completely unapologetic. It explains how Deepa kept her joys, her family and her life’s purpose always in sight, quite as her own beacon of hope, as she rose to realise her own ambitions. Meanwhile, she handled her own depression, provided support to her young daughter suffering from hemiplegia, enjoyed a full social life, created and ran her own little restaurant, Dee’s Place, took care of her fauji husband, yet ended up with 23 international medals — including a silver medal at the 2016 Rio Paralympics. That was not the end. She also became the first Indian female paraplegic swimmer, continued her love affair with bikes and then made her rallying dream come true.
If Deepa Malik’s book does not motivate you, little else probably would. Another important lesson from her is the humility to seek help. That was how she realised her sister-in-law’s suggestion to use the wheelchair as the means to an end made her “wheelchair-liberated” instead of “wheelchair-bound”. That opened up a new world for her.
As you flip through the pages you realise that each of her little, painful steps in her long journey has a story. It is difficult to believe that she suffered being called a kandam (a wasted or useless person) by some in her extended family. But she took care of her own grooming even while she lay in hospital bed post her surgeries and, piece by piece, built her own little pillars of strength, supplementing the huge support she got from her parents and, later, her daughters and husband. One cannot but applaud the support system that a fauji family in India gets, the sheer pride in their camaraderie.
Then, at the world stage, the final applause was deafening. India’s Paralympics successes have been many of late, but if one looks back at the source of it all, Deepa Malik’s name rises to the top. We are grateful.
Bring It On
By Deepa Malik
HarperCollins India
pp. 312; Rs 499
