Rajouri teacher with spinal cord injury conquers Himalayas

Rajouri, July 24: Scripting history, a spinal cord injury victim of Rajouri drove his 2211.8 km on the roads of Himachal Pradesh and Leh to complete his dream journey.

Tilak Raj Sudan, in his mid-40s, is a government teacher who used to live a happy life until July 9, 2011, when he met a life-changing road accident in which he suffered grievous spinal cord injury of paraplegic nature due to which his body beneath the chest, including his lower limbs, is senseless.

After spending his life in a wheelchair, Sudan spent his initial three years after the injury bed-ridden, but later, with the support of his wife Sakshi and son Om, he started using a wheelchair and is now using his manual as well as electric wheelchair to spend life. However, last year, some of his friends motivated Sudan to learn to drive the automated vehicle after which he completed the course from an institute and purchased a modified car referred to as an “adopted vehicle”.

Sudan now has set a record by driving his “adopted vehicle” for a mammoth distance of 2211.8 km along with his family and a friend which he considered to be a record as no patient having paraplegic spinal cord injury would have driven a car for such a long distance, especially on the tough mountainous roads of Leh Ladakh, Kargil, and Himachal Pradesh.

“Three weeks ago, I decided to go on a family tour in Leh and sought the help of one of my close friends to accompany me and help me drive wherever required,” Sudan said. “We started a journey from Rajouri and moved via Mughal Road to reach Srinagar and then crossed the Zojilla pass to reach Kargil followed by the next destination Leh. I drove my car from Leh to the next remote destination Nubra Valley and then followed Shyok River to reach Pangong."

He said that the most challenging route to drive was this, which he braved.

Driving the “adopted vehicle” through the hand-controlled mechanism, Sudan then drove his car to Himachal's Manali via Rohtang Pass and Atal Tunnel and returned to Jammu after following the Manali-Jammu route.

“I drove the car in the entire journey and the total distance travelled was 2211.8 km. This was the most challenging, motivating, and thrilling journey of my life,” said Sudan, who works as a government school teacher.

"I am probably the first spinal cord injury wheelchair-ridden patient who drove the car for such a long distance on tough roads of Rajouri, Poonch, Kargil, Leh, Rohtang, and Manali as no one has ever claimed to have done so,” he said and termed it as a rare achievement for anyone. “Anyone who saw a spinal cord injury patient and a bed-ridden person driving his car without anyone's help was stunned.”

Sudan said that a spinal cord injury victim patient might have visited Leh as a tourist but he was probably the first one to visit this entire area as a driver and drive his “adopted vehicle” a distance of 2211.8 km.

His wife Sakshi Sudan Abrol, a housewife, who is seen helping her husband in every possible way, said that her husband was a source of inspiration for everyone in the society.

“He is not only confident of himself but also spreads the values of confidence in the society,” she said.