Thiruvananthapuram: In the three years he stayed at home, unable to move his body below his chest, Gokul Retnakar learnt some of the biggest lessons of life: that the years he spent in depression would only be his loss and that his injury was a burden that he would have to live with.
Gokul was brought down by the fourth accident on a day he chose to sleep on the backseat of a car. He had three bike accidents earlier and survived. But the car accident dashed his dreams to study law for three years.
In those years, he relied on the internet and watched videos from around the world, which inspired him to move on. Literally. For Gokul got behind the wheels again. Along with a friend, he designed a hand-controlled car. But that brought another accident.
DGP T.P. Senkumar dropped his name when he advised a gathering in Thiruvananthapuram to follow the traffic rules. It was a function to distribute tri-scooters to 34 disabled persons and an artificial limb to a fourth- grader from the MP fund of Ms T.N. Seema. Gokul got a tri-scooter too.
“It was a pleasant surprise to watch Seema follow up on her promise to give us tri-scooters after she had visited a meeting of ‘Can Walk,’ a gathering of persons disabled like me,” Gokul, the lawyer, says. He had started ‘Can Walk’ with disabled friends like him to help each other. They do campaigns for road safety, rehabilitation and are now working to get a meeting place.
