POLIO: MY STORY

CURSE OF IGNORANCE

By Anjum Naim

The first country to be chosen by the then U.S. President Eisenhower to receive the formula of the Salk Vaccine, first ever vaccine against polio, was India, and the presentation was made on May 5’1955 to the then Indian Health Minister, Rajkumari Amrit Kaur, by the US Ambassador Mr. Shermon Cooper.

The same evening, I was born. Is this coincidence not an irony of fate?

Exactly three years since my birth, my parents were suddenly overtaken by misfortunes. My mother narrates that on fourth day of fever, I started faltering down. The right leg started limping. We thought it might be due to some injury or sprain. A number of oils and ointments were, thus, applied to the limping and lifeless leg. The doctor, who used to visit our village, Astipur every morning by his cycle, also treated and plastered the affected leg for one month but all of these efforts, cut no ice. A Moulvi Sahib from nearby mosque, who came every evening, to blow over me after incantation, declared with complete confidence and conviction that it was an attack of “evil spirit”, which could be cured except with the blessings of saints. My paralyzed existence kept hanging in the feeble arms of my mother while her tears kept rolling down her face to drench my embroidered brocade clothes. I could only watch her helplessness and disappointment but was not able to gauge its intensity.

Amma (the mother) says: “We left no shrine or mausoleum where we did not pay our homage. We contacted every saint to obtain his supplications in the form of Imam Zamin to be tied to arm as an offering to guardian-saint. And left no Friday night, when we did not light a candle of hope in the niche of the mosque. But it seemed as the evil spirit was determined to put out every flame of hope and desire.” My parents, at last, submitted to the will of Almighty after three years of continuous pain and agony. My father consoled Amma saying, “Irrespective of his disability, he is the light of our home. It is he, who would kindle a lamp at our door-step.” His patience spoke volumes of his fiasco and failure, which I could understand.

In early 1962, my father came to know about a missionary Health Clinic near his paper shop at Kolkata, where paralyzed limbs of disabled children were treated through physical exercises. He immediately, called me from the village for the Physiotherapy, which continued for months together. Suddenly, Sino India war broke up and the people departed Kolkata enmasse. We also left for the village abandoning the treatment. However, due to exercises I became able to walk without any support. My physiotherapist Miss Thomas was an extremely caring, loving and sincere nun. She told us that any further improvement was not possible. She also convinced my father that the ailment was due to a disease called POLIO and not because of curse of any evil spirit. Even its injection was available in the global market.

Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) had already hit the Indian Pharmaceutical markets before the sad demise of my father. Whenever he heard about the birth of any child, he used to reach there, immediately, only to convince the family to get the new-born vaccinated against Polio and other deadly diseases. It became one and only mission of his life. I also do hope to continue his mission until my last breath.

(An excerpt from the “Tale of an Ordinary Man”)