He traveled the world, by the age 29 he had visited over 40 countries.

His business was doing well , he was on top of the world , nothing could go wrong.

Girish Gogia was living his life life .

He loved adventure sport , just two days before the turn of the millennium, he was in Goa .

He loved to dive into the sea from the cliff , he had done this many times before.

On that day the final dive he took changed his life forever .

He misjudged the depth of the sea , his neck hit the rock ,
he heard a cracking sound ,
he fractured his spine .

On the New Year’s Eve he was on the bed in the hospital looking at the ceiling.

Doctors informed him he will be this way for life unable to do anything on his own , on the bed , in a wheelchair.

He had fractured his spine at C4, C5 and C6.

90%of his spinal cord nerves were crushed.

His brain could not carry signals to his body.

Neck down he was paralysed.

He had lost control of his bowel movements , just had 40 % of lung capacity.

Someone like him who was full of life and had traveled the world, this meant end of life.

I met Girish at his home , he recalled the dark days ,

“I wanted to commit suicide, wanted to hang myself on the fan but I could not , I wanted jump out from the balcony but I could not move , my wife refused to give me poison “ .

At the very bottom phase of his life something in him told him , what had to happen had happened, “I reflected , I cannot keep crying , life has to move on “

“yes it’s true
I cannot do anything on my own ,
I cannot drink a glass of water ,
eat food or change my clothes,
my body does not work but I have my brain intact ,
I can think “

When life had dealt him the worst card he looked for a reason to live .

And he found it .

Girish is the most positive person I have met , he yet goes about living his life fully .

Strapped to a standing bed he dances to music , he travels places on a wheelchair, and he motivates anyone who has lost hope in life .

He told me “I asked life what it wants of me and the answer I had was , the accident had a purpose and that was to spread the message of optimism “

He had to face further challenges.

Girish sadly lost his wife to MS , she too had become paralysed and blind in the last days of her life.

He has seen pain few of us can even imagine.

Yet Girish has an infectious smile and joy about him , he says “If I with all that I lost at 29 I can be happy anyone can be happy”

“Thank God for life , it’s beautiful.” he says .

His message to everyone out here “Do you wish to make your life a super hit movie or a disaster is a choice, the script written for me was a sad one I changed it “

I cannot agree more , as a storyteller, I script stories that inspire.

And every life is a story and each one of us is a storyteller.

Thank you Girish for having come in my life as a friend , may you keep smiling and spreading positivity and hope .