Powerful Motivational Speech  Deepa Malik

Hi i'm deepa malik and i'm going to share my journey a journey which is full of challenges fears unpredictability and also my dreams also the solutions that i sought and definitely how i learned to celebrate my life the first lockdown was introduced in my

life when a very playful

Outdoorsy Tomboyish Little Deeper 

Was Told That She Has A Tumor In Her Spine For Which She Was In The Hospital For Almost Two Years Once The Doctors Discovered The Tumor I Was Taken Into Surgery After That Surgery I Had To Undergo A Very Very Strict Rehabilitation Program It Was Scary For A Young Child Because I Was Trapped Up In Calipers In Chest Braces That Would Leave Blisters Prickly On My Body My Parents Used To Say Today You Stand Up For Two Minutes Tomorrow You'll Be Able To Stand Up For Four Minutes And One Day You Will Walk That Taught Me How To Continuously Raise My Own Bar Battled With That Tumor And Learned To Walk Again Went On To A Very Normal Teenagers Again Back To My Outdoor Self And Then Got Married To A Person Who Had The Same Passions As I Had I Loved Sports I Loved Outdoors I Loved Biking And Ours Was A Fairytale Marriage And Then Our First Daughter Was Born I Started Living My Childhood In Tiny Steps Of My Daughter But She Met With An Accident As A One Year Plus Little Girl And The Impact On Her Brain Caused The Left Of Her Body To Get Paralyzed She Was Taken To The Same Hospital Where I Had Spent My Days Of Childhood Struggling With My Share Of Disability I Was Busy With Devika's Recovery And Her Treatment And Just Then We Got The Good News That Our Little Bundle Of Joy Ambika Was On Her Way And Once Ambika Was Born Devika Also Started Showing A Lot Of Improvement Because The Two Siblings Would Play Together Just When Life Was Looking Up Things Were Normalizing We Got The News That My Husband Had To Proceed For The Kargil War And Being An Army Officer He Had To Attend To The Call Of His Duty The Call Came At A Time When Doctors After Mri Told Me That My Tumors Were Back And My Tumors Were Back With A Vengeance 1999 June I Was Transferred To Rnr Hospital Delhi Where I Was Given Seven Days To Celebrate Walking Doctor Said Since They're Recurring Tumors It's Going To Be A Complicated Surgery And Surgery Is The Only Answer If You Want A Chance To Live Because Otherwise The Infection Is Going To Spread And Maybe They Lose Me On The Operation Table But Removal Of Tumor Will Also Leave Me Paralyzed Since The Spinal Cord Will Get Damaged Not Very Many Choices But I Chose Life Against Death I Wanted To Live And I Think My Motherhood Gave Me A Lot Of Courage I Wanted To Be Around My Daughters Especially At A Time When There Was No Surety Of Life Of My Husband Who Was Fighting A War In That Kind Of A Printer Comment I Decided To Go In For The Surgery I Walked Into The Theater Knowing Very Well That Either I Will Not Live Or Even If I Do I Will Walk Out Or Maybe I Will Be Wheeled Out With Just Below Paralysis I Had To Accept What Was Coming But I Guess I Focused More On Staying Alive Than The Paralysis I Learned One Major Lesson Which I Always Share From Such Platforms Whenever You Are Prepared The Stress Levels Are Always Low Armed With This Kind Of Preparation I Reached The Hospital And I Got A Lot Of Strength From The War Wounded Soldiers And When I Walked Through That Hospital And I Looked At The Faces Of These Soldiers The Only Thing I Saw Was A Smile That Gave Me A Lot Of Strength That If They Can Smile In These Adversities I Am Still A Person Who Had A Disease There Is A Reason Of My Disability Which Is Going To Happen In My Life When I Was Celebrating Being Alive Having Gone Through Major Surgeries And The Doubt Of Losing My Life On The Operation Table I Was Really Happy That I Was Alive And I Made It Through Those Surgeries I Was Learning The New Tricks Of The New Body I Was Adapting Myself Emotionally To The Requirements And The Daily Needs Ingest Below Paralysis Where I Did Not Even Have A Bladder Or A Bowel Control Left In My Body I Had No Torso Balance I Had No Sensation In My Body And I Was Learning What To Eat What Not To Eat How To Manage My Urine My Stool And Inside I Felt Brave And That Is The Only Word With Which I Could Define Myself In My Own Thoughts But To My Horror And To My Surprise People Were Defining Me In A Different Manner They Were Calling Me A Financial Liability They Were Defining Me As A Dead Body Who Probably Will Die In A Room In Our Own Urine And In Our Own Faces People Thought I Will Never Be Able To Be A Good Mother I Will Never Be Able To Feed My Daughters Be With My Daughters I Will Be A Hindrance In My Husband's Transferable Job In The Army As People Like Us Cannot Travel I Was Working Very Hard With My Training With My Rehabilitation With All The Exercises But Nobody Was Focusing On My Hard Work And That's When I Decided I Had To Change People's Perception I Had To Change My Identity In The Eyes Of People I Will Not Be Called A Wheelchair Bound Patient All My Life And Slowly I Realized Who Is More Disabled Is It Me Or It's The Mindsets Of The Society Do They Know How To Deal With A Person Like Me And Then I Set Myself On A Mission Ability Beyond Disability I Set Myself On A Solution Finding Mode Which Probably Is Now Defined As My Resilience Because I Was Adapting To All The Changes Around Me If They Said I Will Not Be Able To Cook For My Children I Started A Garden Restaurant And A Full-Fledged Catering Business If They Called Me Wheelchair Bound On The Wheels Of A Wheelchair I Changed The Wheels To The Wheels I Loved The Most I Started Biking Again I Started Rallying Again You Know Being First Biker Rallis It All Is Indeed Great To Hear The First Biker Woman Of India The By First Realist But Being A First Always Comes With A Bag Of Challenges You Have To Find Your Own Way Especially When There Are No Policies Around It That Nobody Is Accepting Your Modified Customized Vehicle Nobody Is Ready To Give You Insurance In Your Body And In The Quest Of Being A Biker I Wanted To Strengthen My Upper Body To Be Able To Drive And Sustain Gruesome Rallies In The Deserts And High Altitude I Had To Exercise And That's When I Was Reintroduced To A Rehabilitation Called Hydrotherapy Once I Entered The Water I Realized My Body Can Swim With Just The Help Of Two Arms And That's When A Sports Woman In Me Was Born I Learned About Parasports In Maharashtra And I Joined As A Swimmer At The Age Of 36 Years At 36 When I Learned That There Are Sports For People In Disability Though Not Very Many Women Were Participating At That Point Of Time And There Was Nobody In The Disability Category That I Represent The Country I Wanted To Go And Participate In Nationals And Everybody Said Khalnay Jangi Is She Going To Play In This Age In This Body A Mother Of Two Daughters Is Going To Play That Was Unheard Of People Said 36 Is The Age Where Mostly Athletes And Sports Person Choose To Retire But I Was Going To Take A Leap Into The Unknown Because I Have Understood That Opportunity Knocks At Your Door Winners Are Those Who Have The Courage To Walk Through That Door When I Reached The National Competition In The Year Of 2006 It Took Me An Hour To Pick Up Three Medals In Three Different Strokes And Three New National Records Were Made That Gave Me An Appointment That Gave Me An Opportunity To Represent My Country At Fest Big Games In Malaysia Kuala Lumpur Specific Games Were Then The Asian Games For Our Region When I Got The Opportunity To Travel To Malaysia To Represent India I Had To Go Alone Till Then There Were No Policies Which Said You Could Take An Escort Or An Attendant Along I Definitely Went There Alone But When I Came Back I Came Back Wearing The Indian Tri Colors The Track Suit And Holding On To A Medal Because I Stood Second In Backstrokethere Once I Arrived At The Delhi Airport And I Waited For My Cab No Taxi Would Stop Instead They Turned Around And Said Ambulance Ki Savari Could Taxi Mccube That Hit Me Strong I Said Wearing A Tracksuit And Holding On To An Indian Medal And Yet I Was Being Called An Ambulance Ki Savari And That Inspired Me To Continue To Play Sports And A Serious Sports Person Within Me Was Born Even In My Journey Of Sports I Did Hit A Dead End My Body Was Not Taking Well To The Cold Water Of Swimming Training In The Winter Months Doctors Advised Me Against Swimming In The Cold Season Because That Could Cause A Cardiac Arrest So I Had To Shift My Gears So When My Swimming Career Came To A Dead End Because Internationally I Was Not Able To Improve My Timing Since The Infrastructural Challenge Of Heated Swimming Pools Came My Way My Will Was There My Strength And Ability To Go Out And Train Was There I Had The Passion In Me To Represent My Country And Win Medals In Swimming But The Biggest Challenge Was Not Getting Access To Temperature Controlled Swimming Pools And This Was An External Hindrance Which Came My Way But Now What Do I Do Do I Give Up On My Career Or I Try To Learn Another Skill Or I Hon Another Ability To Continue To Play My Sports That's What I Always Tell Today's Generation That You Should Be Quick To Find Solution Adapt And Be Willing To Learn Never Give Up On Learning Something New And Thankfully

I Did That

I Started Learning To Become An Athlete 

At The Age Of 39 At 40 I Got The Opportunity To Represent My Country At The Commonwealth Games 2010 That Brought Me To The Capital City And I Had To Shut Down My Full Fledged Catering Business With 2010 The Serious Athlete And A Sporting Career Was Born In My Life I Shifted To Delhi And When I Came To Delhi I Realized That The Policies Were Not There No Defined Policy Was There For Paraspots Our Constitutional Right Says That All Of Us Are Equal Then Why The Policies For Parasports Went Internationally They Were Equal Not There For Us That's When Me And My Elder Daughter Devika With Our Passion For Creating An Inclusive World We Started Making Certain Documentation Of Policies Of Another Countries And Putting It Out There To Bureaucrats To Politicians To Officials What Will Happen By By Just My Doing Something You Know Taking Initiative Is The Biggest Virtue Of A Good Leader And Taking Initiative Can Lead To Bigger Solutions In Life Soon I Was Made A Member In The Five-Year Planning Commission As Appointed By The Hrd Division Of Sports Ministry And As A Member In That Working Group We Were Able To Define Policies For Parasports Parasports Became Mainstream And So Did My Passion And My Career That Was The Mainstream The Only Aim That I Had And I Wanted To Represent My Country At The Highest Level That Is Paralympics But Unfortunately I Could Not Make It To Paralympics However At The Age Of 42 I Was Awarded The Prestigious Arjuna Award And Everybody Said That At 42 You're Getting One Of The Highest Sporting Honors And A Picture With The President Of India You Are Lucky And I Smiled At Everybody When You Are There And When You Have Achieved Your Hard Work I Don't Know Why Is Described As Luck I Did Not Accept That Comment And I Said I Shall Continue To Get More Pictures With The President I Went On To Win Another Asian Medal And Record In 2014 And Another Picture With The President With My National Role Model Award In 2014. Just When I Had Reached World Number Two In Javelin And Knew That I Will Have A Very Secure Place In 2016 Rio Paralympics And Finally My Dreams Will See The Light Of The Day My Event Changed To Short Put With Just 11 Months In Hand I Had To Reach The A Qualification Mark Get Into The Target Olympic Podium Scheme And Make A Medal If I Had To Make My Dream Come True Well It Was Time To Learn Again And I'm Happy That I Was Willing To Learn Again With The Total Change In The Training The Diet The Nutrition The Equipment The Weight Training I Was Able To Make A Medal For The Country At Rio From Ranking Ninth To Ranking Second In The World During My Training I Again Faced A Lot Of Doubts Thrown At Me People Said A Woman At 46 Years Of Age Is Trying To Throw A Heavy Iron Ball Equipment She Is Going To Waste Taxpayers Money She Will Never Be Able To Achieve This Dream But One Thing I Learned From That Experience Self-Belief Is The Key To Fight And Battle Against Any Doubt Thrown At You I Continued To Train Even After 2016 When People Said That Was The Right Time For Me To Retire Because One Should Retire At Their Peak If You Don't Win Again You Will Lose Your Name Your Fate In 2017 At The Age Of 47 I Got My Padmishiri Another Picture With The President And In 2018 When People Said That At The Age Of 48 When Women All They Do Is Menopause And Bleed I Was Preparing Yet Again For My Another Asian Medal And Another Asian Record In Javelin And This Time I Dared To Learn Discuss And Made Yet Another Medal For My Country In 2018 Asian Games 2000

 

2019 I Was Bestowed 

With The Highest Sporting Honor That's The Kale Ratna Award And That Was My Fifth Picture With The President At The Rashpati Bhavan What I Want To Tell Everybody Here Is That No Gender No Age No Physical Challenge Should Be Able To Define The Limitations Of Your Dreams People Will Look At You The Way You Look At Yourself And Never Allow Anyone Else To Paint The Colors