His is a tale of grime, guts and glory. He is a perfect synergy of physical and mental strength and fought all odds to come out triumphant in his endeavour to make a name for himself in a world, which isn’t so kind to people with physical disabilities.
But Rajinder Singh Rahelu wasn’t the one to spend his life on the small mercies of the people around. Crippled by polio when he wasn’t even two, this 36-year-old powerlifter from Mehsampur, a small village in Punjab, have traveled a long distance.
“Life wasn’t the same a few years ago. I have gone through a hell, which I can’t describe in words. I had to toil hard to reach to this position,” says the powerlifter, who won a bronze for India in 2004 Paralympics in Athens.
“It has indeed been a long and arduous journey for me. Life hasn’t been kind. Apart from being disabled, I belonged to a poor family which struggled to make ends meet. My father played in a wedding band to feed the seven-member family consisting of three sons and two daughters. For me, life was even tougher as I used to go to the school sitting on my brothers’ shoulders. In school, I used to cripple across the classes for different subjects. It wasn’t until Class X that I heard of something called wheelchair and was lucky to get one soon through some donation,” reminisces Rahelu, but without any grievance or bitter feeling.
“From the very beginning, I knew I wanted to do something different but wasn’t able to figure out about what to do. One day my friend Surinder Singh, who was a power-lifter himself and who resides in Sweden now, said asked me to try my hand in power-lifting as he was convinced that a little training could get me a state medal. I agreed and there was no looking back from then onwards,” says Rahelu, who has won 19 medals in national and international tournaments, the bronze at the 2004 Paralympics being the most special.
“Touch wood, luck has been won my side ever since I took on to this sport. Within one year of taking on to this sport, I became a national champion and from the very second year, I started winning the international competition. But it was my Paralympics bronze in 2004 that changed my life forever. In 2006 I was conferred the Arjuna Award and now the central government have also devised a policy to recognize para-sports. So things are moving on the right track,” says Rajinder, who won a gold medal at the 2009 International Wheelchair and Amputee Sports Championship in Bengaluru.
The Punjab powerlifter, who has his event on the 12th of this month, says that winning a medal in Commonwealth Games is top in his priority list. “When I started the sport some 12 years back, I had never imagined that I will be representing India at such a big stage and that also in our country itself. So, the occasion is big and I want to perform before my home crowd,” says Rajinder, who trains for five-and-a-half-hour for six days a week.
Ask Rajinder about his well built upper body and the soft spoken lifter says that it’s all because of his hard work. “I could never have the right kind of food required for a power-lifter because of my economic condition. Maybe it’s because I used to travel 25 km to neighbouring Phagwara at least twice a week for training on a hand-powered tricycle,” he says.
Courtesy: Village News
By Rakesh Jha
