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Physical barriers fail to put a spoke in his wheels
Sheikh Jani has become a role model to the physically challenged He has defeated his disability Though he lost use of his legs due to polio in childhood, he has, on his own, modified a car that can be operated with just hands
Vanasthalipuram: Sheikh Jani has become a role model to the physically challenged. He has defeated his disability. Though he lost use of his legs due to polio in childhood, he has, on his own, modified a car that can be operated with just hands. He says that seeing everybody drive cars he wanted to drive a car but could not do so as his legs would not cooperate. Then he thought upon modifying a car as per his requirements. He succeeded in doing so and is now teaching other physically challenged persons how to drive cars.
Dedication to goal helps reap rewards
According to him, when Jani expressed his desire to drive a car, after returning to Khammam from Kuwait, his friends laughed at him and made sarcastic comments. This only strengthened his resolve, and driving a car became his sole goal. With unflinching dedication, he proved his friends wrong and showed them that he too could drive a car. His experience of teaching his farther auto rikshaw driving earlier had come handy, he recalls. Recounting his experiences, Sheik Jani said he was a native of Pativari Gudem in Khammam district. When he was two-year-old, his two legs were paralysed due to polio. But the disability did not unnerve him and he went to complete ITI (Electronics and Electrical) at Saint Mary’s Polio Home in Khammam. There the doctors operated on his legs, and thereafter onwards he started moving with help of walking sticks.
Later, Jani took up repairing televisions, fans and refrigerators as his profession to make both ends meet. With some help, he reached Kuwait and worked in an electronic chip company there for two years. As for the mechanical aspects, he learnt about them from his brother Badar Babu who, a fitter by profession, taught him electrical techniques. It took two years for him to understand the working of an engine. After getting thorough knowledge about engine, he embarked on modifying a car that he could run without using legs.
Experiment with Omni van
In order to experiment with his ideas, Jani bought an Omni van with his hard-earned money. He understood that the clutch functioned when a pressure with a weight of 20 to 25 kg was applied on it. As such, the clutch could be used only with legs not with hands. But Jani continued his experiment to be able to operate the clutch with hands – he made some modifications to the electrical supply.
Bingo, it worked!
When he succeeded with the clutch, he turned his efforts to operate brake and accelerator, too, with the help of hands. Finally, four years spent in finding solution by trial and error method paid rich dividends and he is now able to drive a car on his own, by operating it just with hands. Now he takes his family on long drives without taking help from others. Later, he shifted his base to Vanasthalipuram and started his workshop named Creatives Technology.
BY Bathini Shettaiah Goud
