“I met an accident in 1999 when I was in the ninth grade. I was riding on a motorbike and was run over by a car. I was in a coma for six months due to which I lost most of my memory. That is why I could only finish middle school.

The bones in my leg also shattered and I had to undergo many operations till 2013 when an infection developed in my leg and they had to cut it off.

I was wheelchair bound then and could not do much for a living. But I had to. My father is a retired government official and we are five siblings. We all live in a government house that my brother was given.

I first started at a mobile repair shop where I was earning Rs100 a day and then came down to Rs50 a day when I started working at an electronics repair shop.

Now that I have started at the picot shop, I earn Rs200 a day. I am not married yet because I do not have a leg.

I used to need one person to bring me to and from work when I was on a wheelchair. This prosthetic leg has given me a lot of independence as I do not need anyone to come with me.”

Published in Dawn, January 26th, 2019