Polio no more a crippling fear for him

Ajay Joshi

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, July 16

Birbal was diagnosed with polio at the age of five due to lack of proper medical facilities in his village. The unavailability of proper treatment crippled him for his entire life. He suffered a major setback early in his life but was always keen on moving on and complete his education despite his disability. However, constant slurs from peers forced him to drop out of the school. What remained constant throughout his growing years was his zeal to become independent and support his family.

Now, 31, Birbal took to body building in 2004 to shape up his career and body. “I had just entered my teens when I started working on my physique. The idea initially was to have an enviable body despite my inability to use legs. I didn’t want this to be any kind of hurdle in my dreams. With time, bodybuilding became my passion and within a few years, I started participating in several body-building championships. I believe, it is easy to give up and blame circumstances for one’s shortcomings, but the joy of achieving something is only felt when you persevere through life to overcome difficulties. This joy comes with hardwork and sacrifice,” said, Birbal, a resident of Lidhran village, near Suranussi.

Being the eldest among his siblings, he says, his parents started worrying when he was diagnosed with polio. Wrong medication by doctors further made him miserable and he couldn’t grow normally. Apart from following his passion, he used to do odd jobs to earn a living for himself. In the absence of any tricycle, he even had to crawl to move from one place to another.

“To shed extra fat from my upper body, I used to crawl faster using my hands. The encouragement came from observing others. I made my mind stronger and thought, why not make optimum use of two hands gifted to me by God. When I turned 18, I participated in my first body-building competition and the journey forwarded from district to state level competitions,” shares Birbal.

Now, standing tall with his list of achievements, Birbal is popular among budding fitness freaks as Billu Paji. It has been over five years, since he became a gym trainer and now rides an Activa.