“My inspiration has always come from my failures.” ~ Sudha Chandran, Bharatanatyam Dancer
Summary: Sudha Chandran is the true dancing diva. She is a trained Bharatnatyam dancer learning the form since the age of 3 years. Unfortunately, she lost her leg due to gangrene after having met with a bus accident. Her struggle to dance with a prosthetic leg is astounding. Anyone could have given up. Dancing without a leg is hard to imagine. She fought back, fought hard and till this day has kept her passion alive.
Nationality: Indian
Industry: Entertainment
Q: How difficult were the first few months after the accident? Was the hope to dance again something that kept you motivated? on nytimes.com
A: Well I always say – a battle is only won when you fight it alone. It’s always an individual’s initiative. Your people might be with you, your family might be with you, but if you don’t have the determination and you don’t take the initiative to fight it out, nothing can work. As far as I am concerned, the only desire was to fight back because I wanted to prove a point. I didn’t want this accident to deter me and say that I am not going to dance again. And I really owed something to my parents, because after the accident I found that they were very disturbed and disappointed with life. I felt that if I have a life which I have to live once, I might as well do something and then leave this world.
I always believe that when something is taken away from you, it’s then that you realize the importance of that particular thing in life. One does not realize the importance of anything, as long as it is with you. But when it is snatched away – be it relations, be it anything, that is when you think, ‘Oh! How I wish…this had not happened to me.’ Dancing was always a passion for me, but it was only after that accident that it actually took me to a very different level.
