The entrepreneur who lost sight but gained vision
This is the story of a gritty entrepreneur who walked the path of success despite an unexpected setback. Read on...
This is an amazing story of triumph of human will over a disability, one that was inflicted upon rather than born with.
John Milton, asks this clinching question in the poem On His Blindness, 'Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?' I fondly ask. And provides an answer himself.
'God doth not need
Either man's work or his own gifts: who best
Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state
Is kingly; thousands at his bidding speed
And post o'er land and ocean without rest:
They also serve who only stand and wait.'
Without medical sophistication of today, Milton spent the rest of his life in blindness telling himself, 'They also serve who only stand and wait,' which means that they also serve God who endure hardship.
Milton composed Paradise Lost, considered a literary masterpiece, after he lost sight.
A life-altering change
It was August 1997.
Naveen Lakkur was almost three years into his marriage, but his entrepreneurial venture hardly left him any time to spend with his wife.
But an invitation from his friend's in-laws to spend the long Independence Day weekend with him and his in-laws, made Naveen pack his bags and head to Chennai.
Little did he know this trip will change his life forever. In Chennai, after visiting a temple, Naveen and his family went to MGM Dizzy World, a theme park.
His love for water, made Naveen enter the splash pool at the theme park. As he slid into water, people who were already in the pool splashed water on his eyes. These are not light splashes but very harsh sprays of water.
A week later, when Naveen was watching Shah Rukh Khan starrer Pardes, he felt some shaking and flooding in front of his eyes.
It was the night show. He closed his left eye and could see perfectly with his right eye. But when he did the same exercise with his left eye, he had the same shaking, flooding experience again.
Next evening on consulting an ophthalmologist, Naveen got the first shock of his life, "One of your eyes has gone blind. You may not be able to see with it," said the ophthalmologist. He also advised Naveen to consult a retina specialist.
The retina specialist had more bad news in store for Naveen. The retina was completely ruptured and the doctor told him to get admitted the very next morning for a surgery.
A true blue entrepreneur, Naveen was worried about the time he will have to stay away from work and convinced the surgeon to let him leave in three days instead of a week after surgery.
The doctor told Naveen that the seemingly innocuous splashing of water was like a stone hitting his eye and the reason for this problem.
Dr YL Rajashekar, the retina specialist who performed the surgery informed Naveen a 20 per cent chance of getting some sight in the blind eye.
But the worse was far from over. The doctor told Naveen that it would be just a matter of time that he turns fully blind as the other eye had also developed a crack on the retina.
A similar surgery was conducted on the other eye, and Naveen completely lost his vision with a bleak chance of getting some sight back.
For the next three months Naveen was advised to sleep on his stomach as the retina may dislodge if he slept on his back. Naveen endured the ordeal, mostly confined to bed.
Lessons learnt in adversity
Without business or a job, Naveen began to contemplate what he could do if he was not able to move around.
"I could be a telephone operator," he thought to himself. At such time, when the future looked bleak, Rajesh Setty, an old friend wrote to Naveen some words that gave him fresh hope.
"Problems come to heroes so that they can overcome it," said Rajesh. These words inspired Naveen to get back on his feet.
He told his friends of his inability to see and inability to perform any task. Another friend Prakash Venkatesan suggested a list of 20 jobs he had in mind for Naveen.
And suddenly for Naveen, who had lost all hope, things were starting to look up. But suddenly to add to his woes, 11 employees of his company C-Design Systems -- his first entrepreneurial venture -- handed over the office keys to him and resigned en masse.
The situation forced him to sit up, and with the help of his wife and few friends, Naveen resumed office and doubled his business within six months.
Here is a streak of human endeavour that refused to give up and kept the light burning when there was darkness all around.
Fatalistic attitudes debilitated the mind already enduring physical pain. But a turn to positive thinking and achievement completely negated the pain.
CAclubindia
