I was born in 1987, in Mumbai, to Nagesh and Sharayu Ghadi. My name means “Gift from God.” By the time I was a year old, I wasn’t walking like other kids. My parents took me to a doctor who told them not to worry, that I was probably not walking because I was a chubby child. But after a couple of months, I couldn’t even sit. My parents took me to GT Hospital, and a muscle biopsy was done at the Genetic Research Center at Bombay Hospital. And so, by the time I was one-and-half years old, we knew I was afflicted with SMA.

For my first year of school, I attended Spastic Society School. However my parents found out about SEC Day School, Agripada, and so I transferred there as it was closer to BMC Staff Quarters at Byculla, my home. SEC is a special school for children with orthopaedic handicaps and even had a bus, but did not offer classes beyond Std 7. I was accepted in Std. 9 std by the Bhausaheb Hire school much to our relief, in spite of the distance and expense it involved.

One of my best friends was a girl called Gauri who was disabled below the waist. She was a brilliant girl. I had other friends as well. The school had arranged for my class to be on the ground floor but only until Std. 10 when it shifted to the top floor. However my dear father carried me to this floor everyday and even waited outside my class all day. With the provision of a writer, I completed my SSC with a score of 86% and was among the toppers in the category of “disabled students.”

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