Para-badminton player Manasi Joshi’s story has been told before. But it nev🧜er gets old. Especially at a challenging time i𒁃n human history such as now, with bitterness all around.
Joshi lost her left leg after a road accident in Mumbai on December 2, 2011. She was a 22-year-old computer engineer, with a life ahead of her. Yet, sꦯhe is sorted enough to not be consumed by the tragedy.
“I’m an amp🐻utee. So what? There’s more to me than my body,” Joshi said in a TED Talk. She was riding to her job in Mumbai when her two-wheeler got tangled up with a truck in front of hꦦer. It ran over her left leg.
Crucial hours were wasted till she was operated upon. The police, though well-meaning, displayed utter lack of🔴 sensitivity. They asked her for her papers even as she lay on ꧂the road a “mangled mess”.
The hospital she was taken to did not have any surgeons available. They had to wait two-and-a-half hours for an ambulance ♎to reach another hospital. Joshi’s accident had taken place at 8.30 am. She was operated upon at about 6 pm. “The system failed [that day],” Joshi said.
The leg was treated, but it got infected and became gangrenous. Amputation was the only opti𝄹on.
She had played badminton since childhood. Some three months after her accident, she stepped on the court with a prosthetic leg,꧃ pursuing the game with a new focus. Joshi has won several medals since, including gold at the 2019 Basel Para-Badminton World Champi✨onships.
(This appeared in the print e🗹dition as "Blade Shuttler")
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