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Sheer grit helped him swim against the current
Sutapa Mukkerjee | Kolkata
After setting many records, physically challenged Masudur plans to cross Palk Strait next year
It is sheer destiny that despite coming down under a speeding goods train a child continues to breathe. The 11-year old boy had no clue what had happened to him. For hours together he lay unconscious. When he regained his senses, he was shattered as he could never lead his happy jumpy days again — both his legs had been torn away by the cruel wheels of the speeding engine. “A thirty-year-old episode but an indelible one,” says Masudur Rahman Baidya of Kolkata.
A happy 11-year-old boy was on his way to school like any other day. To make the most of
the time on their way to school, his friends would jump onto any passing train and hop down as the train crossed by their school. But little Masudur was different: He did not want to disobey his amma, so he would walk all the way to his school save that one fatal morning, when he was late to school. With his friends’ coaxing him he gave in and as he swerved to catch hold of a railing on the train, his hand lost the grip and in the second he was flung under the moving train.
Masudur remembers the anguish he had felt as a little boy when he returned home from the local hospital at Howrah to discover that both his legs had been amputed. For days together, “I would lie down quietly staring at the ceiling and hoping some by some magic I could go back and kick the ball, run a while, climb up trees or dive into the nearby ponds.” That magic was fulfilled by a jinni — his own grit.
Masudur's parents knocked on almost all doors to help their son have a better and their search for help ended with the local Imam intervening. The Imam with his resources sent the little boy to a rehabilitation centre at Pune where he was taught how to walk life once again, this time with artificial legs.
The life with artificial legs was no easy ride. The little boy had an innate love for water and
he would stand by the banks of a pond watching his mates having fun. Little that he was, he too had realised by now that to swimming coordination of both hands and feet are required for any basic movement. Besides how could he ever dive in with prosthetics? On one such summer afternoon the drive to plunge into the pool got the better of him. Masudur had sneaked out of home that afternoon to the nearby pond, kept his artificial legs on the banks and let go himself into the water. He recollects, “I was scared out of my wits, I almost sunk but somehow my strong survival instinct helped me to the bank. I lay panting for long but I knew that I could actually conquer the impossible.”
Soon enough the determined young man was blessed with a coach, Piyush Kanti Barua who personally took up the challenge and taught him skills to beat all odds. Thereon began series of rigorous exercising — breathing sideways despite no leg stroke, hand manipulations that would not depend on alternate leg moves, and in as many ways to develop strong muscles. Barua is still with Masudur attending to his special skills whenever required.
Honoured with the post of a State swimming coach for the last four years, Masudur has great achievements to keep him floating happily in life. After having won many accolades in open swimming tournaments in the country, he decided to conquer the English Channel. The idea was exciting but the tide could go against him.
Says Masudur Rahman Baidya, "I knew; swimming in the sea would not be the same as swimming in rivers or ponds." For practice, he went to Digha a small sea beach in southern West Bengal. "I practiced under my coach for a good three months. It was indeed difficult initially as the water density in the sea is different than other water bodies."
He became the first specially-abled swimmer from Asia and the second in the world to cross the English Channel in 1997. In 1997, he became the first swimmer in the world as a double amputee below the knee to cross the Strait of Gibraltar in record time. He took four hours 20 minutes battling against strong waves. The hunger for conquering shores is yet to be satiated — "I really don't know when that will happen," says Rahman with a shy smile. He is all set to cross the Palk Strait next year. Besides the geographical differences, how would this experience be any dissimilar? "The under currents and waves are expected to be rougher as there are more boulders here. Besides, the water is infested with poisonous snakes."
Masudur has earmarked August 3, next year for this tough task. He has chosen this date, "To commemorate the death anniversary of West Bengal's former Sports Minister Subhas Chakraborty". One wonders why the death anniversary. Pat came the reply, "The world is always busy celebrating happy events, I believe in paying tribute on days marking sad events."
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