I was born on the 17th of July 1986 in a humble family in Rathaus Village of Madhubani District of Bihar. My parents named me Mohammad Shams Aalam Shaikh In my childhood, I was really surrounded by sportspeople and I was really excited to do amazing activities such as Swimming, Fishing, Cricket, Tipcat, and Wrestling.
1. Tell us about your background and journey.
I belong to a sports background family. I was born in a small village in the Madhubani district of Bihar state. At a very early age, I relocated from Bihar to Mumbai for my educational purpose. And here in Mumbai, I started schooling from a Municipal government school and an Urdu medium school. Slowly I completed my schooling and then completed my diploma in mechanical engineering from Saboo Siddik Polytechnic and then mechanical engineering from the Rizvi College of engineering.
This I completed in 2011. And from starting itself as I told you that I belong from a sports background family, I was having an inclination towards sports and always wanted to play. My mother used to always tell me the story about my grandparents, my grandfather.
He was a very famous wrestler in Bihar, West Bengal, and he played in Haryana, sometimes in Punjab and Kolkata. My brother and my uncles also play in street arts like martial arts. And wrestling was very much a part of it but in Mumbai actually, I never got a chance to go for wrestling as that time wrestling was not very famous and I was always watching his movies and videos so I thought let me just start karate so that I started Karate in 2002.
And I officially started playing and learning karate under the guidance of Mr. Umesh Murkar and I became a black belt in 2008, in between, I played on various levels like I represented my school, also played for the state, and also played internationally. I have more than 40 plus medals in Karate.
I represented India in the South Asian Karate Championship in 2012 where I won a bronze medal. This is all before my disability and in 2010 during the national championship I won a silver medal and I was one of the strongest candidates to represent my country in the Asian Games 2010.
In 2010 after winning the national medal, as I mentioned, I was about to represent my country in Asian Games 2010. But due to this unfortunate pain in my spinal cord and spinal surgery, the failure of surgery I can say because of two successive surgeries, I lost power below my chest and I became paraplegic. So there was no power in my lower legs.
That actually that was a very difficult time I can say in my life and then you can understand that a guy who is almost doing all activities as an abled body till 23-24 years and suddenly he is becoming paralyzed below the chest down so that was really very very tough time for me as well as for my family. And however, I did not stop here.
I started finding out different ways how I can start and how I can start again going out publicly and start earning and doing all my other activities which will help me earn. So then in 2011, I got a chance to meet Mr. Raja Ram, from the paraplegic foundation in Sion, Mumbai.
Where he told me that you can do swimming and in this situation also you can become a para swimmer and represent your state, and Country in the Asian, Para Asian Games, and Paralympic Games and so that's where I actually started thinking about my dream to represent my country in swimming.
Even doctors and physiotherapists told me that swimming is the best exercise which will help you to generate back your nervous system. So swimming initially started as a therapy for my rehabilitation purpose but then it turned out like a profession and I started playing in various championships so this is what happened and in a long way I completed almost six years and after that in 2018, I got a chance to represent my country in Asian para games 2018.
Which were one of the best moments I can say in my life and in between I played various national and international championships and I am a national record holder in various events and I am looking for it to represent my country in Asian para games 2022 in the China and Paralympic Games in 2024 in Paris and let's hope for the best. I am trying my best to bring the medal for my country in these games.
2. How did you decide to make your passion your career? Was your family supportive?
When I realized what I have done in my life where I have given much time of my life and then I realized sports is a field where I have given more of my time. Almost 80%, when I was in school, I used to play karate and I used to spend more time swimming.
In college also when I was doing my MBA, I thought if I am doing something, I find happiness in it that actually helped me that I just give full time to swimming and let's see if I can do something with this and that's how I started practicing completely swimming and I gave complete two years to swimming. And then that it actually turned out good and I started even getting sponsorship and connections to various brands associations so that's how I thought let me just go ahead with swimming and make it a career.
I can say my sister was supportive not the overall family because there was no earning in swimming. So they always used to tell me that now you are growing, you have to think about your bread and butter and think about your future so you have to do something.
But then till 2015, my mom was very supportive, however, my father was not much supportive. He always used to just ask me why are you going to simply take a bath in the swimming pool. So these kinds of questions and taunts were there. But it always was 100% my decision that I wanted to do this and I actually closed my eyes and I have already seen where I am going and what is my intention and what my aspirations and what I have to achieve because sometimes only I feel what I can see others cannot see. I am so happy today that I have represented India which makes me really happy.
3. Who is your favorite player and what have you learned from him/her?
Rahul Dravid is my favorite player and I have learned a lot about watching his sports and interviews like the decency he is having and the dedication towards sports and discipline he is having is really really remarkable and I wish to meet him sometimes and get encouragement from him personally.
4. What is the level of commitment and time required to make a sport a career?
I think the level of commitment I can say to make sports a career, you have to be very very clear about your goals and your commitments. Like if you are going to do sports you know that the world is not going to be easy and there may be ups and downs and obstacles will be there but then you have to find out the different ways to overcome all these odds and keep going.
Which is very important towards making a career in sports. For doing normal swimming like just to have fun maybe you can do half an hour or 1 hour but then if you want to do it as a profession, then at least you have to do two hours in the morning and two hours in the evening at least for five days and then in between it is 3 days minimum you have to do physical activities in the gym which is what is necessary to become a good professional swimmer.
Then coaching is very important like how the guidance is. It is very important who has actually guided you in all the activities. They should be under guidance. Whatever you are doing your physical strengthening and ordinance in swimming. It should take at least a minimum of 4 to 5 hours per day to become a good swimmer.
5. How can we encourage more youngsters to take up sports as a full-time profession?
In India, we are emerging as a sports-playing nation so I think we have to show them good pictures of how the Khelo India youth games are working. Khelo India national games have started.
If someone is interested or the youth is interested he or she can play and if he or she can bring medals at national stage definitely they are getting a scholarship from the government as a huge amount somewhere around 5 lakh to 8 lakh rupees per annum and including other facilities which are really really good.
As a student if you are getting this you would definitely get all the other facilities to go for schools and all other activities I think this really motivates someone to take up sports as a full-time profession and career and I think now this is changed because I have a very good example of one of my colleagues.
She is a very young girl. She is from Haryana and she won a silver medal in Asian Para Games and now she will be getting around crores of rupees from the Haryana government as well as the central government.
So at a very early age, she is playing. Sometimes we have to think about our passion, our interest and it's not always necessary that you will play at the international level but then sports is very important as physical activity and then for making a career in it you don’t have to become an athlete.
You can be a good coach, good trainer and many other activities are their sports. The sports industry also includes things like media management, physiotherapy, and athlete management.
Then so many things are there. It's all the part of making a brand we make and in that way, like we require everything from A to Z. So I think it's a million or billion-dollar industry and if someone wants, I think definitely he or she can grow in this industry and make a career in it.
6. Tell us more about what you do and what led you to speak on the TEDx platform.
So what I do besides doing this training and other activities like what I thought when I realize that there is no platform for disabled people at a district level. So I formed Para Sports Association Mumbai as an organization that actually provided a platform to the disabled people at the district level and they can show their talent to go on stage and national and international championships.
So providing always like if you are a leader and if you provide you have that thought and mentality that you wanted to bring a change in the society you wanted to make a bridge in the society for a future generation that actually inspired many others to take up sports as a career and grow in their life.
Those people who think that because of disability their life is now finished they can't do anything than making believe themselves they can do and they can achieve whatever they want to do in their life that is what very important and which I am doing through sports that actually leads me to get selected for one of the best emerging leaders in the world by Global Sports Mentoring program by United States Department of sports and education and the Bureau Of Cultural affairs.
And that's how I am trying my best to bring change in society and I am using sports as a tool to bring accessibility bar in India. I raise my voice on national television and through the media, through the people like you who take interviews and various conferences.
I go to various universities and colleges and to give speeches and make creating awareness about disabilities and education, disabled education, and its community welfare and their dignity, and what ways we can make the changes in societies.
About the myth related to disability and reality in society so this kind of work actually helped me to get and speak on a platform like TEDx. Speaking at TEDx has always encouraged me to engage with international people and to share and exchange my ideas which really help me as well as others to grow in their life.
7. Which is your favorite book and why?
Quran Masjid is my favorite book which is the holy book for the Islamic people. So I read every single day at least one or two paragraphs. I just not read it but translate it from Arabic to Urdu and understand it and I found that this book has all the things that we need.
This is a book like I have already finished and studied it three times and again I am reading it but then I never get bored. I learned so many things and there are so many stories and real lifetime teachings in this book which actually helped me to grow in my life and understand myself better.
As well as my enhancing my understanding about the various issues related to societies and our culture our history and how it started what actually helped you to become a great leader in the society and how you can make love, happiness and how you have to deal in your day to day life so.
So many things are there so many lessons are there in this book which actually motivated me to read this book continuously and I am reading it regularly and I am finding lots of lessons to understand and learn from this book so that's why this book is very very important for me.
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