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“Sometimes I feel if not for my wheelchair I wouldn’t have had such wonderful experiences”

Manoj Kumar Gupta (50), born in a village in UP’s Etawah district where his father was a doctor, was affected by polio at around nine months. When the lower part of his body was paralysed, everybody thought he had no future and people used to commiserate with his father, “Doctor-saab, what is going to happen to your son?” They only viewed his inert legs and didn’t consider his agile brain.
 
Half a century ago, a disabled rural child couldn’t even dream of motorised tricycles and wheelchairs. “The kids in my village made a crude wooden pushcart with wooden wheels, in which they would take me around,” Manoj recalls his schooldays. He was a bright student and easily passed 12th grade, but his physical limitations prevented him from moving out of Etawah district for higher studies. Undaunted, he opted for distance education and completed his M.A. in English.
 
Manoj started taking tuitions at home and was such a popular teacher, with so many children flocking to learn from him, that he was able to earn a living. Seema Sharma, one of his students, introduced him to Sweta who had been her friend since third grade. Sweta had a mild disability: her left hand was paralysed. She had told Seema, “I will marry someone whose disability is greater than mine!” When Manoj met Sweta in 2000 they clicked; their mutual liking deepened into love. Today Sweta (42) recalls how she was impressed by his intelligent, lively personality. When she told her parents she wanted to marry him, however, they stoutly opposed the idea; in fact they as well as her siblings have not accepted the couple to this day.
 
They got married in 2003 when he was earning a livelihood from tuitions and she, after completing her 12th grade, was pursuing a diploma in Engineering (Consumer Electronics) from Mathura University. They moved to Kanpur in 2008. By then, Manoj was gaining recognition in literary circles and taking part in poetry recitations. He decided to apply for teaching positions and in 2011 he was appointed as an English teacher at Kendriya Vidyalaya. Sweta was teaching Hindi in the Army Public School and quit because she wants to do her PhD in Hindi. However, teaching is in her blood and her dream is to give economically weak kids an education.
 
Manoj has received awards from the UP government and is often invited to be a guest speaker. “People have always been kind to me,” he says. “Money comes and goes but humanity is most important.” He narrates examples of this humanity, when perfect strangers have stepped in to help him in public places such as railway stations. One such incident was at the Banke Bihari temple in Vrindavan when the thronging crowd blocked his wheelchair access to the temple. “From out of nowhere two policemen came and lifted my wheelchair and took me into the temple,” he says. “It is one of my most cherished memories because I feel god himself called me and gave me his darshan.”
 
Manoj has an electronic wheelchair in school and a regular wheelchair at home. He can also drive; he only needs to be lifted and placed in the driving seat and he’s ready to go. Manoj says their daughter’s name, Aanya, means “unique”, and when their son was born they named him Yatharth, which starts with the last two letters of her name. Aanya (19) is doing her BSc and Yatharth is in the 8th standard in Kendriya Vidyalaya.
 
If Manoj’s father had been able to predict the future he would have told all those people who sighed over his fate: “My son is going to become an award-winning teacher with a loving wife and children.” And no one would have believed him!