"You Might Not Be Able To Run, But You Will Fly" | Cracking ISB Against All Odds

"After Class 10, I got a spinal cord injury that led to an infection. Bedridden, I had to drop an academic year. When I was on the verge of losing everything, all I wanted was the capacity to do the regular stuff like using the washroom by myself.

Doctors had given up hope but when I asked them if there were any chances, they told me that I needed to exercise regularly. I took that very seriously and pushed myself a lot to get moving, reading a lot of Robin Sharma’s self-help books. A year of pushing myself led to magic- the MRI showed that the infection was completely gone! The doctors did not believe what they were seeing!

I finally went back to school and when boards came, I topped my state and went to Xavier’s College, Calcutta! I pursued my CA and CFA degrees along with my Bachelors’ and landed a job in Goldman Sachs in Bangalore. Moving from Calcutta to a new city was another challenge but...I took it on!

At that time, I was able to walk for short distances but the problem was that the company's office was spread across 6 buildings. I remember walking into my first meeting into a large boardroom and falling down right when I was entering. Dealing with that embarrassment was manageable, but the biggest challenge was the distance of the washroom from my desk. I didn’t like asking my colleagues to help me as often as I needed it and was almost convinced that I should leave the job and join my family business. But the other option was to fight it out and since I had never quit, I wouldn’t this time too.

So out of some weird logic, I decided that I’d stop drinking water, so I wouldn’t have to use the washroom. But this started taking a toll on my health, and I thankfully stopped after one or two months.

Around that time, someone connected me to a friend who was an automobile engineer from Germany with expertise in making medical equipment. Within a month, he built a design that could give me just the independence I needed. And that design is in this wheelchair. This is not a normal wheelchair, it's completely modified to my needs!

From then on, there has been no looking back. I went on to work at Deutsche Bank in London and now, I am here at ISB, all because of this wheelchair!

My mom has always told me, “Nitesh, you might not be able to run. But you will fly.”

- Nitesh Pasari, ISB Hyderabad (Class of 2019)