Sadaf Fatima
She is 45, married and mother of three young children. Five years ago, in 2019, a road accident injured her spinal cord, leading her to have locomotor disability for life. However, Sadaf Fatima has not given up smiling. Despite her inability to stand up on her own, she manages to move around in a wheelchair and cook everything except ‘roti’. “Only rolling and baking ‘roti’ is little tedious and cumbersome. So except rotis, rest of the food in my home kitchen is prepared by me,” shares Sadaf, who shifted to Goa from Lucknow in UP, three years ago with her family.
Sadaf’s family came to Goa for better education facilities for their children and to start life afresh. Her husband, who was in exports and construction business, has now changed track and started a restaurant to support his family. Back in UP, Sadaf was in Lucknow chikankari business and worked from home. We were a happy, well-to-do family, until that fateful night when I met with a serious accident and disrupted our lives,” she quips.
As she recalls, it was a visit to a nearby ice-cream parlour after dinner with her sister-in-law. Sadaf who was driving the car, got down to purchase ice-cream and as she crossed the road to return to the car, suddenly a speeding vehicle hit her, she fell on the road and lost her consciousness. It was 11.30 pm. Sadaf was rushed to a local hospital in Lucknow, where she was in the ICU for 17 days. She had a very bad spinal injury.
“I was unaware of what’s happening around me as I was unconscious most of the time. The doctors lost hope and asked my family to take me home. Then someone advised to take me to the Indian Spinal Injuries Centre in Delhi, which is known for treating spinal injuries. So my husband took me to Delhi. I was kept in ICU for a month. The surgery was done. I spent five months there. Though I survived, the injury had paralysed my lower body. Unable to lift my legs, I could not stand or walk. The pain was excruciating. Because of the tracheotomy tube I could not speak. Finally I wrote on a piece of paper and asked the doctors to send me home. The tube in the neck was removed, and thankfully I could utter words because tracheotomy sometimes leads to loss of voice. Still in shock, I wanted to leave the hospital and return home. The treatments had drained our bank balance. The bills were in lakhs. Finally, I came home. At that time my daughter was in 9th class, my youngest son was in 4th and the elder son was studying in Pune. I gathered courage, accepted the fact that I would never be able to walk again. Wheelchair became my companion,” narrates Sadaf.
Sadaf’s injury had left the family in bad shape, both financially and psychologically. Covid and lockdown had impacted her husband’s construction business. The savings were all spent in the treatment. They had to sell their jewellery, their penthouse. No business, no income. Finally they decided to change the State and try their luck in Goa. It’s been three years that the family relocated to Goa. Sadaf’s husband started a restaurant at Porvorim. Children began going to school and college. She too learnt to live with the never-ending pain, to move around in wheelchair, and to cook for the family.
Life began to roll on. Sadaf’s participation in the Purple Fest introduced her to many friends. She performed a wheelchair dance along with others. She opened up, began to socialise. As an experiment, in her colony she put up a small stall selling lassi, snacks and Lucknow kurtis during Navratri. She gained confidence and is planning to start her business from home, ordering kurtis from her native town, and selling in Goa. Her elder son is running their restaurant Barzilla at Porvorim, and husband has taken up ‘Bawarchi’ to run in Panaji. Her college-going daughter helps her whenever she wants to put up a stall. Life is slowly coming on track, though she will not recover completely or will not be able to leave wheelchair and her painkillers. But it’s okay for her now.
“I am alive, and my loving family is around me; that’s the biggest joy for me. When I see persons with disabilities around me, I now relate and empathise more because I know what pain is. This thought came to me only after I experienced pain myself. Before my accident, I never realised the situation a person with disability has to undergo. Hard lessons in life turned me into a compassionate and thankful person. I don’t regret being myself now,” concludes Sadaf who has collected enough strength to face life with all its challenges.
