Success Stories

Visual Impairment: Totally blind due to Retinitis Pigmentosa Born: 1956 A physiotherapist of Read More repute in Indore, practicing for tmore than four decades, Narendra Chelani today runs his own clinic called Jigyasa Physiotherapy Clinic, one of the few largest ones in the city. Not only doctors around refer their patients to him, even people come directly to him for their physiotherapy needs. Mr. Chelani’s eyes has only light perception and says with all humility that only couple of patients in the 40+ years of his work could not believed in his professional ability due to his blindness. Narendra Chelani was born with low vision. As a child he could see bigger or magnified things but in bright light, due to which he used to like being in the sun most of the time as he could see at his best. His school education started very late as he and his parents were not equipped with the knowledge of Braille and other learning & teaching methodologies and so he could not cope up with the studies in a mainstream school when admitted. His father worked in the postal & telegraph department and was frequently transferred to places where there were no special schools for blind children. He first went to school only at age 12 in a state government run special school for blind & other disabled children when they moved to Bhopal. Here he studied up to class 4 and he had turned 16 then. Due to his being overage & more mature to his classmates, he directly appeared for class 8 exam privately, and a year later joined a mainstream private school from class 9. Mr.Chelani still remembers that at very young age, he heard from someone in his family about blind people working as physiotherapists which certainly didn’t make any clear meaning to him then. But after finishing class 11, he attended a seminar about career opportunities for blind people organized by a Indore based non-government organisation called Madhya Pradesh Welfare Association of the blind (MPWAB), where he learnt more about the profession and also met a totally blind gentleman, M.V.Shirdhonkar, a trained physiotherapist practicing in Indore. With this guidance, Mr.Chelani joined a three year certificate course at Victoria Memorial School for the blind in Mumbai. In 1979 after finishing the course he came back to Indore and applied for a job in a newly started multi speciality hospital, first of its kind in Madhya Pradesh then. The hospital management was divided due to his blindness as to whether or not to give him the opportunity, so he offered to work voluntarily to begin with, by which not only he would help the management to know his professional abilities but also to gain the much needed work experience. For five months he worked without any financial remuneration until one of his patients, a lady who benefited and was impressed with his work, also knew people in the hospital management, proactively took up the matter of regularizing his employment. Her efforts resulted in his appointment as a Junior Physiotherapist. He worked with this hospital for two years. Narendra Chelani simultaneously begun his private practice. He started his clinic with a small table of size 2 x 3 feet, the one which he used for his studies, and one machine. His first patient here was a 2 year old boy having polio. As his practice grew, he equipped his clinic with the required machines & equipments. In 1981 he joined a state government run home for orthopaedically disabled children as a physio occupational therapist. After a few years of work he felt his knowledge and potential were not adequately utilized, so in 1989 he left the job to join a private city based hospital called Geeta Bhavan Hospital, who were looking for an experienced professional to look after their newly setup physiotherapy clinic, which he continue to head till date. In his own clinic, which was a one man show, now has two assistant physiotherapists, and he also gets support from his father for the administrative responsibilities. Given his inquisitiveness, in 2000 when he first read in one of the Braille magazines that blind people too can use computers with screen reading software, without any clear idea from where he would get the software and who would teach him, he invested in a computer Rs.40,000. MPWAB connected him with National Association for the Blind in New Delhi from where he got the demo copy of the software, and with the help of his computer vendor picked up some basics of the wonder machine. Later with lot of self exploration, hit & trial, and using some audio & etext tutorials he learnt using computers by himself – all by burning the night oil. What little leisure time he gets between his clinic, the hospital and the few visits he does, he enjoys reading on the internet, and reading books in e-text & audio formats. He also contributes to the local organizations working for blind & other disabilities in the region in advisory roles and as mentor to the young people they refer him for guidance & motivation Mr. Chelani sayss his satisfaction and motivation comes from his work, especially while working with difficult cases who benefit from his advice and therapy. For instance, in 2012 he could successfully treat a girl who suffered spinal cord injury in a road accident, and got paraplegic. Her doctors were also not sure how much she would recover. Many people in such situation have to live their life in the same condition, and with a catheter running through their body due to loss of control over the bowel and bladder. Mr.Chelani’s treatment could in a month remove the need for the catheter, in another two months she started walking without support, and six months later she was back on the road driving her vehicle. In year 2000 Doordarshan featured his story, and later few other leading television channels such as Aaj Tak, Zee News, Sahara Samay too featured him. He has also been reported by the local and regional dailies such as Nai Duniya and Dainik Bhaskar. Quite simple in his life, thoughts and easy to approach, his mantra of success is also simple, “Where there is a will there is a way. If the will is there, no limitation or disability will hinder your progress”. He is associated with varius welfare organizations like: * Life member of M.P. Wellfare Association of the Blind, * life member of National Fedaration of the blind Malva and Nimad Anchal, * life member of National Association for the Blind Madya Pradesh Indore Chapter, * life member in Indian Association for Epilepsy Indore Chapter, * life member of Visually Impaired Physiotherapist’s Association. Have been elected as joint secratory for 2 terms in M.P.W.A.B and elected as E.C. member many times in M.P.W.A.B. and N.A. B. Indore. In 2016 He completed his B.Pt. from Net Paramedical Coledge Thane. Read Less