“I cannot miss something that I frankly do not remember having,” says K Kalaiselvan as he gets ready for his practice session at the Anna Stadium in Tiruchi. The para-athlete from Aravapadi village in Mayiladuthurai district was recently in the news, along with Chennai-based K Rajesh, for being one of the two recipients in Tamil Nadu, of Olympics-standard running blade prostheses from Udhayanidhi Stalin, Minister for Youth Welfare and Sports Development.
Having lost his lower right leg in a road accident at the age of five, Kalaiselvan says his friends never let him feel that he was lacking in any way. “I used to be very mischievous and always running around (with the help of a government-issued wooden prosthetic) as a kid, with my friends urging me on. They wouldn’t start any game until I joined them,” he recalls.
