The road to fulfilling our dreams is never easy. Sometimes there are obstacles which make the goal seem impossible to achieve. But time and again, many people have shown through their journeys how not all hope is lost, no matter how hard things may seem.
The same is the case with Rudra, a 24-year-old guy from Burdwan, West Bengal, who recently cleared NEET. What makes his journey extraordinary is that he was paralysed at 19, leaving one side of his body immobile.
According to The Telegraph, Rudra was studying Dentistry in Bhubaneshwar at the time. One day, when he was home in Burdwan, he fell while he was in the toilet after a bout of dizziness. In the next two days, he couldn’t recognise certain people and started forgetting things.
He was rushed to a hospital in Kolkata. Doctors found that a certain pressure had built inside his brain and for him to remain alive, they had to perform a surgery. The incident left him paralysed on one side.
After coming back from the hospital, Rudra’s bone-density and bone-mass were at an all-time low. A few months after the surgery, he fractured his femur. Thus began the struggle of doctors for a second round, this time to recover his leg.
“Over the next few years, we just kept on trying relentlessly without losing our patience. He gradually started responding. His left arm started moving and then the leg. On Monday, as he stood with a smile on his face, it was a full circle for all of us,” said Rajesh Pramanik, a doctor at SSKM Hospital, Kolkata.
Despite such a tough time, Rudra didn’t let go of his dream of becoming a doctor.
“I always dreamt of being a doctor and I knew I would be one someday. For the past few years, as doctors kept helping me, I made up my mind that I want to be like them… people who would be able to change the lives of others and bring back smiles,” he said.
Despite a failed attempt at NEET in 2017, Rudra sat for the medical exam again this year and finally cleared it. He secured a rank of 789 under the physically challenged quota.
“Now that I won’t be a dentist I want to be a surgeon. I hope to gain enough strength to perform,” he said.
Kudos to Rudra for being hopeful and relentless despite tough times! We hope his story inspires many others.
Cover source: Left.