Discovering inner strength

This article appeared in The Telegraph

TERESA REHMAN PROFILES A TECHNOCRAT WHO GAVE A NEW MEANING TO BRAVING CHALLENGES

I had to start life all over again,” says technocrat Bolen Baishya with a stoical look that quite masks his extraordinary grit and determination. Baishya is at present secretary of the Assam Public Health Engineering (PHE) department.

His world came crumbling down just as his life was blossoming. “You will have to spend the rest of your life in a wheelchair,” doctors at Christian Medical College Hospital, Vellore, had cautioned him. Disaster struck in October 1977, when he was posted at Diphu, Karbi Anglong, as executive engineer (PHE) just after two-and-a-half years of his service life. Baishya had a nasty fall and suffered from a serious neck injury while he was surveying a water supply scheme.

Recalling those turbulent times, he recalls, “The year 1981 was a turning point of my life. In the month of July, 1981, I suddenly suffered an acute disc prolapse and was paralysed from neck downwards, an outcome triggered by my fall then.” He was admitted to Gauhati Medical College Hospital immediately but due to lack of sophisticated investigating methods like CT scan and MRI in GMCH in those days, he was shifted to CMCH, Vellore.

“I was operated upon under the supervision of Dr Mathai, then head of the department of neurology at CMCH, Vellore. The post-operative verdict was that I had survived but would have to spend the rest of my life in a wheelchair,” he says. His wife was eight months pregnant then and Baishya was in Vellore with his brother, a doctor. “My brother had, in fact, asked the doctors if he could go in for mercy killing,” he remembers.

Two decades on, it is a miracle that Baishya can walk and carry on with his duties. “After the doctors gave the verdict, I was sent to Bagayam rehabilitation centre in Vellore for 16 weeks, where I had to undergo physiotherapy, occupational therapy, magnetic therapy and extensive physical exercise. As a result of this lengthy spell, I gained the ability to use a wheelchair,” says the technocrat.

Having grown up in an environment of Gandhian ideology of love and brotherhood, irrespective of caste, creed and religion, he learnt to accept the pitfalls of life gracefully. “I have tolerance for all religions, an open mind, a deep sense of respect for all forms of labour and faith in my own ability,” says Baishya.

Born in the lush green hills of Raitsamthiah, Meghalaya, in 1946, his childhood was spent in North East Frontier Agency (NEFA), now Arunachal Pradesh, in places like Liekmargherita, Tezu, Krimein and Zero. After the devastating earthquake of 1950, the then NEFA authorities set up an orphanage to accommodate the earthquake victims near the coal town of Margherita. “I was an inmate of the orphanage not because my parents were victims of the earthquake but because of the untimely death of my father in Zero. My widowed mother had to fend for four growing children,” he says.

Gandhi’s influence
Gandhian doctrines were imbued in the inmates by the legendary ardent follower of Gandhian philosophy, late M.N. Bordoloi. Octogenarian educationist and social reformer Indira Miri was then director of education in NEFA. The inmates in the orphanage were taught how to be self-reliant. “We were taught the art and intricacies of spinning thread for weaving shuttles, construction and maintenance of pit latrines and the indigenous knowhow for growing seasonal vegetables,” he says.

Baishya shifted to Guwahati in 1955 and went on through his academic journey in Manik Chandra Madhyamik English School, Cotton Collegiate School and Cotton College. He completed his graduation in civil engineering in 1969 from Jorhat Engineering College and joined the PHE department as a trainee engineer in 1970.

Overcoming odds
Since the beginning of his career, Baishya had been facing challenges. In 1972, when the then chief minister of Assam Sarat Chandra Sinha suddenly decided to shift the capital of Assam from Shillong to Guwahati, his department was given a period of three months only to construct the water supply scheme along with full distribution network for the temporary capital complex, Baishya recalls. “Till date, it gives me immense pleasure that we could execute this challenging task before the stipulated time period,” he says.

The accident though, left him a changed man. “Initially I was disheartened. But I could feel a surge of willpower emanating from within my soul. My strong faith in God endowed me with the power to carry on,” he says. His attending physician and nurse assured him that a day would come when he would be able to walk again. The physician’s assurance elated his spirit. The nurses’ words, “The will to walk again should come from within. If you realise your inherent strength, there is nothing that can stop you from walking again,” still reverberates in his mind.

Baishya came back to Guwahati after six months at Vellore and went through a strict and rigorous regime of physiotherapy for a whole year that made him capable of walking slowly with the help of a stick. He lost no time in joining the chief engineer, PHE’s office in the capacity of executive engineer and within a very short time resumed his normal duties.

With a sense of pride, Baishya says, “I have not been out of the state for as many as 23 years, yet I manage to keep pace with day-to-day developments at the national and international levels just by studying the background material. My disability never came between me and my duty.”
His never-say-die spirit reigns supreme. With four months to go for his retirement, Baishya now wants to work for the disabled. “I want to generate awareness about the rights and privileges of the disabled. I want to remove the social stigma about these kind of people who are otherwise able,” he adds.
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