We hear of the Sabeer Bhatias, the Lakshmi Mittals and the Deepak Chopras but not many talk about the Arun Sondhis. In 1983, a speeding bus ran into a stationary motorcycle at a traffic light in Delhi. On the motorcycle was Arun Sondhi, then a 21-year-old student at Delhi’s St Stephen’s College. The bus dragged him along and made a mess of both his legs, spine and back.

Arun was rushed to a hospital where friends looked after him as he struggled to stay alive. His parents were on a tea estate in Assam where his father was manager, his sister was on a train to Delhi and his brother in Bombay was about to join the Merchant Navy. Arun came out of hospital alive — but as a paraplegic. From that moment the whole family’s life was put on hold and the slow process of ensuring the young man did not suffer too much damage became its full-time occupation. This middle class family was reduced to near penury and a small garage in Defence Colony became their new home.

Recognising that there weren’t too many possibilities of rehabilitation in India, it was decided to send Arun abroad. After much discussion Sweden was chosen as it offered state-of-the-art rehabilitation. Given the weakness of the Indian currency and the exorbitant cost of living in Sweden, every penny hurt and no one was more aware of this than Arun, who, while grappling with his disabled body, was also aware of how his accident had damaged the lives of those around him. He took to rehabilitation like a duck to water, and surprised even the most optimistic of doctors by completing in six months what normally took two years. Very soon he became a rehabilitation instructor at the same institute and, within a few years, felt so confident he started his own software company which prospered well into the late nineties.

... contd.