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saLT |
the-south-asian Life & Times April - June 2010 |
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Art Travel Women
& Politics
Profile Comment Future Predictions
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- Major HPS Ahluwalia "Life is all about conquering the other summit - the Summit of the Mind" He was 26 years of age as he stood atop Mount Everest - the world's highest peak. Just a few months later, he suffered a gun-shot wound in the neck during the Indo-Pakistan war of 1965, a wound that left him paralysed below the waist and confined to a wheelchair. It was a tragedy that would have destroyed most people – but not HPS Ahluwalia. He draws his strength from mountains - "Life is all about conquering the other summit - the Summit of the Mind" he says. Determined to rebuild his life, he travelled to the UK to undergo intensive rehabilitation. His five-month stay at the hospital did not reverse his condition – but it did become a life-transforming experience. It became his mission and obsession to set up a similar hospital in India to help others like him – and his decade or more of perseverance and single-mindedness eventually resulted in the culmination of his dream project – the Indian Spinal Injuries Centre in New Delhi, India. It was no ordinary feat or journey this far. Grit, determination, and a positive spirit were all that he had. SALT brings its readers an exclusive with the unstoppable Major Hari Pal Singh Ahluwalia – still brimming with ideas and living life joyfully. He is the chairman and founder member of ISIC – but he is a man of many more interests. He has been, until recently, the Chairman of the Indian Mountaineering Federation; he is an author of several books; he is an avid gardener – he will talk of his Kinnow trees as passionately as the hospital’s upcoming stem cell research project; a movie-buff; a keen traveller; and an epicure – who values and cherishes life – especially others’. Read more in the print issue
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