Says Devendra Jhajharia, Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan and two-time gold medallist Paralympian, who is also president of the Paralympic Committee of India
Prachi Raturi Misra
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As a child, he loved climbing trees. The taller the tree, the more the excitement.
It was yet another day for the eight-year-old Devendra who was scampering up a tree when he remembered a jolt of sorts.
The next thing he remembers is waking up in a hospital bed. “My parents told me I got an electric shock of 11,000 volts from a live wire that was touching the tree branch. When the villagers got me home, my parents thought I was dead until they finally noticed my shallow breathing minutes later,” recalls the Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan and two-time gold medallist Paralympian, Devendra Jhajharia.
He was elected president of the Paralympic Committee of India in 2024.
He lost an arm to the accident but not his fiery spirit. In an exclusive interview with The Mind Diaries, he speaks of how he faced the many challenges he encountered, why it is important to think the right thoughts and how sports help with keeping one mentally and physically fit. With a javelin in his hand, he says he slays all his fears and doubts because disability, is of thoughts – all in the mind.
Excerpts from the interview:
How important are sports for an individual?
I always say sports are for not only sportspersons but every individual.
“Playing a sport does amazing things for one’s mind and body. Also, it gives one the right life skills for a healthy life. Winning, losing, facing challenges and one’s own fears, fighting them, pushing yourself, sports, I would say not just teaches us about that particular game but also teaches us to learn the game of life and how to live it well. I would say sports teach us to lead life.”
Also, one needs to remember that our bodies were made to move, to walk, to run, to do physically challenging tasks. But with the lifestyle nowadays, we hear of so many health issues in young people, so many heart attacks, etc. When one stays physically active, one also stays mentally fit and vice versa.
How did you handle yourself after your accident?
I was taken to a hospital in Jaipur where I was treated for 5-6 months. I still remember one particular evening when the doctors told me that they would have to cut off three of the fingers on my left hand. I can’t describe how those words felt.
When I gained consciousness after the surgery, still groggy, my hand was bandaged. I flitted in and out of consciousness. Three days later, when the bandage was removed, I remember the doctors telling my parents to turn my face the other way. But I managed to do my trick and see from the corner of my eyes. All I could see was a stump. Half of my arm was gone. The rest of the days in the hospital passed in a haze.
When I got back from the hospital, my parents made sure, it was business as usual.
They never made me feel that I needed special treatment. Of course, they gave me a lot of love and care which I needed but if I did something wrong, I would still get yelled at, I still had to wait for my farmer father to get money after selling his stock of crop to get new clothes, which we got only once a year. If there were quarrels between us brothers and sisters (two elder brothers and three sisters) and I was at fault, I wasn’t spared a shouting. So essentially it felt the same. That I thought helped me to not feel any different.
Also my mother said one thing that stuck to me. She told me “tu bas khel” (you just play). So, after a few initial weeks of not wanting to step out of home, I began going out and playing with friends as usual. That advice from my mother just became my antidote to dealing with anything I faced.
The most tiring part after I lost my arm was replying to the question, “Haath ko kya ho gaya?” (what has happened to your hand). If I was going to the pyayu (water cooler), going to buy something, or walking to school, the question never left me. After a while, however, I got used to people asking it. I didn’t let that missing arm define who I was.
“Disability, I say is actually not with the person who seems disabled but in the minds of the people who think that someone is disabled. We are as capable.”
You made your first javelin by carving one yourself! Please tell us more about how this sport came into your life?
So, after my junior school, I had to move to a bigger school in Ratanpur, for which I had to walk 5 kms from my home. Two years after I moved, I started noticing a number of students playing various games. I didn’t even know the names of these sports. There were students who ran, some who threw the shot put, discus and javelin. I also got interested enough to try. While the shot put and discus seemed heavy, javelin felt nice.
After observing these students for a few days, one day after returning from school, I carved a javelin out of a long piece of stick. And there it was, my perfect ‘lakdi ka bhala’ (wooden spear).
When I held it in my hand, it was as if a dream was born. I had wanted to get into the army but that dream was shattered after my accident. And now I had a new one. I wanted to be a javelin champion.
I held this dream close to my heart and began practicing. So, I began running the 5 km stretch back home from school to build stamina. I would get home, plonk my bag, gulp a glass of milk and run to practice. It was like my life got a purpose and direction. I think we all have a special gift and need to tune in to ourselves to find that gift and hone it with passion, each day.
Tell us your feeling after your first victory.
No one in my school knew I was practicing. So, when I told them I wanted to give a trial for the upcoming district-level championship, there was a sense of surprise yet encouragement. When I threw the javelin, I could hear the surprised reactions and felt a deep sense of joy.
A few days later, I won my first gold medal at the district-level meet in 1995-96. I was competing with other ‘normal’ athletes. I knew I would let nothing come in the way of my dreams. God has been kind and I have bagged several golds post that first one.
What was the most challenging part of beginning to throw a Javelin and how did you overcome that?
Balance was the biggest challenge, getting the momentum was a challenge. I had to work doubly hard than a ‘normal’ javelin player but I knew I would have it no other way.
When I was in college, I began practicing three and a half hours in the morning and three and a half hours in the evening. Of course, the heat of Rajasthan didn’t make it any easier. Sometimes when I was exhausted, I remember my coach asking me, ‘Desh bada ya garmi’ (what is important, country or heat) and that got me going again.
How crucial is it to train one’s mind to stay hopeful and positive?
The only way to stay happy is to stay positive. One has to be mindful of not letting negative energy overpower you.
I come from a farmer’s family with very limited means. Getting a stomachful of food was a luxury.
But being deprived should not mean being negative.
One has to work consciously on building a positive mind set.
And sometimes when tasks look overwhelming it is important to focus on the now. For example, when it seemed challenging to think how my life would be with my arm gone, I began focussing on the present and simply did what my mother told me, “Tu bas khel” (you just play).
She must have said it to help me normalise my living as a child, to do what children my age should have been doing. That playing, the normal behaviour of my siblings and family told me, it was all good. And I took what my mother told me as my life mantra.
Is there a memory you have of how you handled a jibe or a negative comment?
I was at a state-level university championship and I heard a coach saying, “Looks like there is a lot of partiality in your state. But you should at least have got a two-handedplayer.”
After I won a bronze, the same coach came to me to apologise for his comment. I simply touched his feet – just as I had touched my own coach’s.
Once you know what your goal is, you should learn to focus on just that. Everything else around is just noise.
What is a very special memory of your journey?
The year was 2002 and I was still in college when I was chosen for the 2002 Asian Games in Busan, South Korea.
My joy knew no bounds. But the biggest high was when I got my blazer. I still remember, when my father saw me trying my blazer several times, he asked me, “Is something wrong with the blazer’s size?”
I replied, “No, it has my country’s name on it. I will represent my nation. I am living my dream and I want to absorb this beautiful feeling.”
I went on to win a gold medal.
How do you look back at your journey?
With a lot of joy and gratitude.
Even now, when I sometimes walk on the roads I had earlier walked on, go to the grounds I practiced on, it feels surreal.
It has been a journey of several highs and some lows but the important thing is that I have kept at it.
It is important to remember to be in the moment and give it your best shot.
Medal Rush!