M P Anil Kumar was a dashing MiG-21 pilot in the Indian Air Force when a road accident left him paralaysed below the neck. He was just 24.
For the past 19 years he has lived in the military's Paraplegic Rehabilitation Centre in Pune and has become an inspiration to many in the manner in which he has picked up the threads of his life.
Today Anil Kumar uses a keyboard with his mouth and is a gifted writer whose by-line rediff.com readers will instantly recognise. An article he wrote about his disability was so inspirational that it found its way in school textbooks in Maharashtra.
Nitin Sathe, who was in the same course as Anil Kumar at the National Defence Academy, Khadakvasla, pays tribute to this amazing fighter as we continue our series on Extraordinary Indians.
If you ever visit the Paraplegic Rehabilitation Centre at Khadki, Pune, in the very first room, you will meet retired Flying Officer M P Anil Kumar, fondly called MP by those who know him.
On his wheelchair, sitting at the computer and pecking away at the keyboard with a mouth-held stick, MP keeps churning out articles with a finesse and class that few writers can only dream of. You can read a lot of his writings on varied topics, on rediff.com as well as in some national dailies.
MP is a quadriplegic. He was paralysed neck below due to a motorcycle accident on his way back from the squadron after night flying on June 28, 1988. The accident confined him to a wheelchair for life.
Eight years before that fateful night, MP, all of 16, had reported to the National Defence Academy in Pune as a fresh cadet. Just out of the Sainik School Kazhakootam, he had wanted to join the Indian Air Force and fly the fast and furious fighter jets, a dream of every young man.
MP comes from a small village about 35 kilometres from Thiruvananthapuram. At the age of 9, he left home to join the Sainik School. After spending some time there he made up his mind to join the air force one day.
Like the 288 from our batch, he underwent training at the NDA for three years. Thrown in the cauldron of multi-faceted, multi-dimensional training, the cadets hardly got enough time to interact with each other, primarily because of the fact that there is no time from rigorous training. In the little spare time that we managed, most flocked together as 'school types' or 'place types' or 'lingo types.'
Image: M P Anil Kumar at his desk at the Paraplegic Rehabilitation Centre in Pune
Photographs: Seema Pant
hats off .
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