Sudha Chandran

Sudha Chandran

Sudha Chandran was born on 27 September 1965 in Mumbai. She had stated in an interview of Nettvu, that she was born and raised in mumbai, but her family originates from Vayalur, Tiruchirapalli, Tamil Nadu. Her grand parents who were the fourth generation had migrated to Palakkad, Kerala from Tamil Nadu. Her father K.D.Chandran, worked at USIS and is a former actor. Sudha Chandran earned her B.A. from Mithibai College, Mumbai and subsequently an M.A. in Economics.

Chandran started her career with a Telugu film Mayuri, which was based on her own life. The film was later dubbed in Tamil and Malayalam. It was also remade in Hindi as Naache Maayuri, where Chandran again played herself and costarred with Shekhar Suman, Aruna Irani and Dina Pathak. She was awarded the 1986 Special Jury Award at the National Film Awards for her performance in Mayuri.Chandran's notable shows on television include Kaahin Kissii Roz and K Street Pali Hill. She was a contestant on the dance reality show Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa 2 in 2007. She appears as yamini in the 2015 TV and serial Naagin.

she is an Indian film and television actress and an accomplished bharatanatyam dancer. In 1981, she hurt her leg in a road accident near Tiruchirapalli, Tamil Nadu while coming back from Madras with her parents.Her leg became gangrenous and her parents opted to have it amputated. However, she subsequently became an established Bharatnatyam dancer. Chandran is known for her roles of Ramola Sikand in Kaahin Kissii Roz, Yamini in Naagin 1, 2 & 3, Chitradevi in Deivam Thandha Veedu, the Tamil remake of Saath Nibhana Saathiya and Anand's first wife in Hum Paanch . She was a contestant in Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa. In 1985, she acted in the Telugu film Mayuri. She can speak english, tamil, malayalam, hindi, telugu and kannada fluently.

Ravikumar Dang, Sudha's husband is the executive director of the school.  Sudha is often cited as a symbol of "will power".  She is also one among the judges in popular reality show Super Dancer Junior Series on Amrita TV and was a judge for the reality dance show Maanada Mayilada in the sixth season.  Currently one of her projects includes replacing Aishwarya and playing the role of Bhuvana in Thendral.

"A physical barrier cannot hamper our dreams and our way to success."

Prateek Khandelwal

Prateek Khandelwal

He was everything a young man his age would aspire to be a well-educated,well-settled businessman surrounded by friends and family who loved him and a special someone that could soon be something more.

But on the fateful day of May 30, 2014, an accident altered the course of Prateek’s life altogether.Prateek was in an under-constructed structure with a friend when he fell down a flight of stairs and landed one floor below.

Doctors had informed the 28-year-old man that he should be prepared to spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair post a spinal cord injury. However, Prateek Khandelwal refused to give in. He challenged the negativity which surrounded this injury and vowed to work towards the path of recovery. 

Today, almost 33 months after the incident, Prateek, now 31 years old, has not only given up his wheelchair but also gained movement through sheer hard work and dedication. He now stands on his feet and walks with the help of just elbow crutches.

A graduate from PESIT, Bengaluru, Prateek was successfully managing his business, RPN Granites, had set up his own house in the city, owned a car, and was about to get engaged to his long-time girlfriend. “I had everything that I dreamt of in my 20s. I was living my life, but May 30, 2014, changed everything,” he recalls. While talking to his friend in an under-construction building, Prateek tripped and fell down the stairs, landing one floor below. Two weeks after multiple surgeries on his head and spinal cord he was introduced to his “new” life. His spinal cord was injured, which resulted in loss of motor function below the waist in short, paralysis. 

This was followed by loss of bladder control, erratic bowel movements, and muscle spasms. The doctors failed to provide him with a road map for his journey ahead. They informed his parents that they should start physiotherapy and be prepared for a difficult future because recovering from a spinal injury is extremely difficult, if not impossible.

Prateek had his first taste of a truly independent life in March 2016, when he travelled to his friend’s house to watch the India-Pakistan T20 match by Uber. And later, within a few months, he had moved from the walker to the elbow crutches. By September, his movement shifted outdoors. He now had mobility, freedom, and most importantly, confidence.

India is still not disabled-friendly country wheelchair accessibility and disabled-friendly toilets remain a problem. Initially, people are shocked by your behaviour as they have always seen disability and wheelchair through a lens of sympathy, he explains. However, when you exude confidence and make it clear that you need not sympathy but support, there is a positive change in people. Prateek says,

Sharath Gayakwad

Sharath Gayakwad

Sharath was born in Bangalore, India in 1991 with a deformed left hand. He attended the Little Flower Public School in Bangalore, where his parents were initially apprehensive of sending him to mandatory swimming classes because of his disability. However, he eventually took up swimming classes at the age of 9 along with the rest of the class. Soon after that, he was to be seen participating in various swimming events for the disabled. In 2003, trainer John Christopher spotted him swimming at a school event, and ended up training Sharath for 7 years. 

Christopher explains that Sharath was the first paralympic swimmer he had coached, and that Sharath had to work a lot on maintaining equilibrium, because of his deformity. He attended Sri Bhagawan Mahaveer Jain College for high school studies, where he was given a fee concession and given encouragement for training.

He is an Indian Paralympic swimmer from Bangalore. At the 2014 Asian Games, he broke P.T. Usha's record for most number of medals by an Indian at any multi-discipline event by winning 6 medals. Coming from a modest financial background, he has over 30 international and 40 national medals to his credit, one of them being the bronze medal at the 2010 Asian Para Games. He is the first Indian swimmer to qualify for the Paralympics and competed in the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London.

Sharath Gayakwad has represented India at various national and international swimming events. He won four Gold, two Silver and two Bronze at the IWAS World Games, 2008.He won a Bronze medal clocking one minute and 20.90 seconds at the 2010 Asian Para Games, Guangzhou, China. The performance also enabled Sharath to qualify for the Paralympics scheduled to be held in London in 2012. He was ranked No. 13 in the world in his category in 100m Breaststroke event in this year.

He is the first Indian swimmer to achieve the qualifying time for London Paralympics, 2012. He has also won 1 Silver and 2 Bronze medals at the 2011 International Deutsche Meisterschaften (IDM) Swimming Championships in Berlin, Germany. Sharath is also the Asian record-holder in his category in two events – 50m Butterfly, 50m Breaststroke.

In 2012, GoSports Foundation sent Sharath to a high-performance training camp ahead of the London 2012 Paralympic Games. The camp was held in Perth, Australia, at the University of Western Australia,. The Chief Coach Mel Tandtrum is a gold licensed swimming coach. Benefiting from the high-performance training, Sharath clocked personal best timings in all four events at London 2012.

In November 2014, Sharath, along with Shantala Bhat, Santosh Patil, and Margaret John Christopher, started up Gamatics in Bengaluru.The online venture focuses on fulfilling the basic requirements of swimmers by providing a marketplace to order high-performance practice gear and equipment. 

The platform also lists nutritionists and physiotherapists, aiming to bring the community together by sharing ideas and recognising talent across India to bring out the best in them.The startup was incubated at NSRCEL, IIM Bangalore's startup incubator, in February 2015.

Gamatics is focused on creating a central repository of sportspersons’ digital profiles along with their competitive performance information on a cloud platform. The platform enables sportspersons to create their own profiles and update their performance details. They can also get it created by the administrator of the sports club/school they belong to.

The big data analytics, Performance Comparison Reports, Performance Ranking and Automated Dashboards help sports persons, coaches, clubs, sports federations, and government, sponsors, and sports specialists/experts find the gaps/variation in performance and address them at the earliest.

Gunavathy Chandrasekaran

Gunavathy Chandrasekaran

Gunavathy Chandrasekharan was just one-and-half-years old when she was stricken by polio. She lost most of the movement in her legs, and today, cannot move more than 20 feet without anyone’s help. 

While the disability may have affected her physically, Gunavathy’s determination and innate confidence shone through. Her enterprise, Guna’s Quilling, which she founded in 2013, showcases the finest products, handcrafted by her along with four other women, at exhibitions throughout India and earns around Rs 80,000 at a single stall. 

The 42-year-old is visibly excited on the call. She became a grandmother earlier that morning and is over the moon.

Gunavathy was raised in a family of doctors but could not continue her education after Class 10 because of her disability. When a relative approached the family with an alliance for her, she was married at the age of 16.

“My mother was very worried about what I would do with my life. She used to keep motivating me by telling me others’ stories so that I could also do something meaningful with my life,” she says.

In 2003, a friend’s daughter presented her with earrings made from quilling. She was surprised to hear that there was not much involved, except paper. So on a lark, she decided to learn quilling from lessons available on the internet. Gunavathy experimented with wall art, miniature pieces, and jewellery, only considering it as a hobby at that time.

When her brother saw her efforts, he got her an order from one of his friends for 40 pieces of wall art.The pieces were giveaways and those who received it promptly called Gunavathy on the number printed on the sticker and applauded her for her art and her efforts.

She was delighted by the response and decided to put up a stall at a jute fair in Madurai. This was the turning point for Guna’s Quilling.From 2014 onwards, Gunavathy started quilling in earnest and participating in different exhibitions. She also invested Rs 50,000 in the venture. Her husband remains her strongest pillar of support, driving her everywhere, to exhibitions across Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala so that she can showcase her products. 

In the meanwhile, she also employed a couple of women from her husband’s unit and trained them in the art of quilling. Soon, she was quilling for almost 18 hours in a day, making a variety of products from miniature art, jewellery, paintings, fridge magnets, etc, over 600 products so far. The products are priced from Rs 100 to Rs 50,000 depending upon the intricacies of the work. She attends eight to 10 exhibitions in a year.

Gunavathy has won District and State Awards in the Art & Craft Category.

“I’m glad that I understood disability should not be in the mind. With the support of my family, I’m happy to have come this far,” Gunavathy says.

Ravindra Jain

Ravindra Jain 

Ravindra Jain was born blind on 28 February 1944 to Pandit Indramani Jain and Kiran Jain as the third child of seven brothers and one sister. He belongs to the Jain community. His father was a Sanskrit pundit; his mother was a homemaker.

His father recognised his talent and sent him to stalwarts like G.L. Jain, Janardhan Sharma and Nathu Ram for formal education in music. At a young age, he started singing bhajans at temples.

He was an Indian Music Composer, lyricist, Playback Singer. He started his career in the early 1970s, composing for hit movies such as Chor Machaye Shor (1974), Geet Gaata Chal (1975), Chitchor (1976) and Ankhiyon Ke Jharokhon Se (1978). He composed music for many films and TV shows based on Hindu epics, including Ramanand Sagar's Ramayan (1987). He was awarded the Padma Shri, the fourth-highest civilian award of the Republic of India in 2015 for his contribution to arts.

Some of his most popular works on TV are Shri Krishna, Alif Laila, Jai Ganga Maiya, Jai Mahalaxmi, Shree Brahma Vishnu Mahesh, Sai Baba, Jai Maa Durga, Jai Hanuman and Maha Kavya Mahabharat.

He was awarded the Padma Shri, the fourth-highest civilian award of the Republic of India in 2015 for his contribution to arts.He received the Filmfare Best Music Director award for his work in Ram Teri Ganga Maili in 1985. Ravindra Jain won many other awards for his contribution to Indian music.

His funeral was attended by numerous celebrities. Prime minister Modi said: "He will be remembered for his versatile music and fighting spirit.

Jain was married to Divya Jain, with whom he has a son. He died in Mumbai on 9 October 2015 because of multiple organ failure.