Some incidents in life are simply inevitable. And they leave a lasting impact on you. What matters in such a situation is how you deal with them and come out of them. Virali Modi, a 27-year-old girl from Mumbai, has a condition called Transverse Myelitis that has left her paralysed from the waist down. But far from feeling stuck in the situation, she has bounced back to life.
Of course, it did not come easily. When the tragedy struck, she felt that her world was crumbling but soon she realised that she needed to change her approach towards the incident and life in general. Modi, who recently walked as a showstopper at an event held at JW Marriott Pune, tells us how she wants to bring a positive meaning to the word ‘disability’.
Like all millennials, Modi too has dreams and aspirations and she also knows how to fulfill them. “I have tried everything from fashion — walking the ramp, modelling — to blogging before the tragedy happened,” says Modi. Even though she felt dejected initially, she got back on track and pursued all of it from exactly where she had left it, she says. “Of late I have even become a social influencer and I don’t see anything that I cannot achieve just because of my physical state,” says Modi who was a runner-up in the Miss Wheelchair 2014 pageant.
Life lessons
Modi says that the one thing she would like to tell every single person sitting in the wheelchair is that they should not feel sorry about their physical state but go out, dream and work with complete dedication to fulfill their dreams. “Being differently abled does not mean that you cannot have fun. Grab your shades, wear fancy clothes, meet friends; do everything that makes you happy and for once, stop feeling sad,” Modi appeals.
She advises people with a similar fate as hers that such incidents could be unfortunate but what matters is that you accept them, call it your fate and not give up hope. “It’s true that when a tragic event takes place in your life, it completely alters you. The only thing you want to do is build walls around you and shut yourself out from everybody. But this is precisely the reason why many people stop living their lives. If they could just embrace life, they would feel motivated to push their limits and live their life to the fullest without any fullstops,” the young girl says.
A motivational speaker, Modi believes that more than a physical issue, disability is a state of mind for most people and that needs to change. The three time TEDx speaker says that she wants other differently-abled people to aim just as high. “We need to stop having these perceptions that we are not normal because what might be normal to you, may not be normal for someone else. So just go out and live your life without any tags,” says Modi.
She also clarifies that the disabled community does not need any sympathy. “We don’t want people to feel sorry for what has happened to us; rather we want them to understand that we have rights, just like them and we can work shoulder to shoulder with them, only if the laws and the infrastructure is in place. So don’t feel sorry, simply be a voice for us,” she says.
Modi points out that we do uphold and celebrate all the differently-abled people on one day in the year but that’s that. The activist is hopeful that our country becomes more accessible and inclusive. “Now this is possible only if the youth, who are more open-minded, curious and aware about people with disabilities, come forward and talk, voice their opinions in front of people on social media because when a ‘normal’ person talks about disability, it does make a difference,” Modi concludes.
