Brave Hearts

Author(s): Kumarpal Desai
Publisher: Eye Care Foundation

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Differently Abled But Not Disabled that a physically disabled person is not necessarily a helpless or a dependent being. He can achieve anything in life if only he does not lose heart and does not become despondent.
Bhupesh Modi, native of Viramgan in Gujarat and domiciled in the capital city of Gandhinagar, transcended his physical disability and achieved a unique feat in mountaineering. He was born with deformed legs - both the legs in inverted position - and the legs were set right after seven operations during 1963-64. Even after these operations, he experienced excruciating pain while walking. He would not be able to walk properly and could not set his feet where he wanted to and thus lived a miserable life. But in 1984, he found a messiah in Shri Vijay Merchant, who had been working tirelessly for the physically challenged. He encouraged him and told him that he had the ability to conquer the Himalayas and the Alps.
These words injected a fresh hope in Bhupesh and he took up the challenge. In 1998, he climbed the highest peak Jand Fro on the Alps and in 2004, he scaled Greet Rockner, the highest peak in Austria. If this was not enough, he also scaled the summits of Hanuman Timba and Biyas Kund in the Himalayas and the Bakartej summit near Leh, Ladakh. When he set out to scale the Alps summit, the orthopedic doctors had advised him against undertaking the adventure and two times he escaped from the jaws of death. Not to be deterred, he persevered and triumphed. He now nurtures the desire to climb North Pole Mountains in Alaska where the temperature is minus 13 degree celsius. Since he follows Jain religion and being a strict vegetarian, his staple food in foreign countries was soup and roasted chappatis (khakhara). Bhupesh Modi did what a person with normal feet would not dare to!
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