Malayali Oscar

As he neared the finishing point, Sajesh Krishnan felt the familiar pride gushing in with a new exhilaration as the crowd around cheered aloud and called out his name. When people crowded him, he realised that he had just created history – Kerala’s first blade runner to have completed a half marathon in his very first attempt.

“I am Kerala’s first blade runner,” Sajesh’s confident and joyous voice booms. At the recent IDBI Federal Life Insurance Spice Coast Marathon held in Kochi, Kerala’s own Oscar Pistorius (the paralympic champion and the first double-leg amputee to participate in the Olympics) competed in half marathon and covered 21.1 km in 2 hours and 50 minutes. A para-badminton player, the 31-year-old is also chosen to the first national amputee football team; their first game is expected to be announced soon.

A marathoner since 2015, Sajesh’s life journey is an inspiring one. Born and brought up in Payyannur, Sajesh had a normal childhood like any boy – playing games with kids in the neighbourhood after school hours. It was in 2005 that the unfortunate twist happened. An 18-year-old Sajesh, a first-year mechanical engineering student, was chatting with his friend on roadside when a heavy-load tipper ran over his left foot. At the hospital, doctors tried to revive the damaged foot, but they couldn’t. Repeating his story for the umpteenth time in his pleasant voice, Sajesh says, “I was given two choices – lifelong crutches or amputation. I chose the latter because I had to be independent and was sure that I could be back on my feet.”

Back home, Sajeesh told his parents Krishnan and Sathi, younger sister Sajna and his friends from college to never show sympathy. “I am glad that they never did. In less than four months, I was back in college on prosthetic limb. I completed my BTech without attendance shortage because the accident happened close to vacation,” he points to the brighter side.

Soon after college, he got a job as a site engineer with a firm and worked in Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabad and Himachal Pradesh for four years. “Everywhere, I lived alone, did all my stuff independently,” he adds. 

When he secured a high-paying job in Oman, he came home for the visa process. With just one week left for the journey, he was told that he couldn’t get the required medical fitness clearance. But he wasn’t discouraged; he tried for other jobs and in 2015, got recruited as a lecturer in arithmetic cum drawing at the Government Industrial Training Institute, Kannur.

The fighter believes that there’s a reason for everything. Sajesh explains, “If the accident had happened in the middle of the academic year, I would have lost my classes. Since I lost the Oman job, I could be a marathoner. I often feel that I would never have been an athlete if I had both my legs.”

Someone with no much sports inclination, Sajesh hadn’t even dreamt of being an athlete or a footballer during childhood. Then how did he become a marathoner? “In 2012, I joined the Facebook group Team Challenging Ones, run by Kargil War veteran Major Devendra Pal Singh, India’s first blade runner. At first, it was a platform where amputees shared their anxieties and came up with solutions. But when people started posting photos of their achievements, I started thinking, why can’t I,” he recalls.

Without revealing his intentions to his worried parents, Sajesh began practising. On his prosthetic foot, he used to go on midnight walks and slowly increased the distance to 2.5-3 km. In 2015, Spice Coast marathon organisers offered free participation to 20 members of the Facebook group; Sajesh was the only one from Kerala. 

“I did a five-km run and became the first amputee Malayali marathoner. My participation wasn’t meant for others’ inspiration; I wanted to convince myself that I could do it.” 

That was the start. After that, he took part in various marathons across Kerala. Last year, when he ran for the Vascular Society of India as part of their international conference, they gifted him with the expensive racing blade, turning him into a blade runner. “My parents, friends, students and I are very happy to know that disability is no hindrance to prove oneself. I run, play badminton and football, drive a car, ride a Bullet and do everything possible, without a limp. Most of my students and colleagues weren’t aware of my amputee status until my photos appeared on newspapers,” says Sajesh, who never misses his daily workout – one-and-a-half-hourbadminton practice and five-km.

He admits that the accident was a huge tragedy in his life, but he hasn’t considered it as a negative phase. 

“One would never test his strength or willpower until they face a crisis. With hard work and determination, any shortcoming can be turned into a skill. I am happy to be proving it every day. What keeps me going is the energy from the cheering crowd, the encouragement from the hundreds I never know in person. Life, like they say, is not unfair,” Sajesh concludes.