Tears welled up in the eyes of 40-year-old paraplegic Alana Gajadhar yesterday when she accepted her certificate from Chancellor of the University of the West Indies (UWI) George Alleyne at the university’s graduation ceremony in St Augustine.
Gajadhar, a business teacher at Swaha Hindu College, Sangre Grande, graduated with a Masters in Education with a concentration on curriculum.
“Well done Alana!” Alleyne told Gajadhar as her wheelchair slowly edged its way on the stage before university principal Prof Clement Sankat, hundreds of applauding graduands and parents.
Gajadhar became disabled at aged 16 after a vehicular accident along the Valencia Stretch, while on her way home from St Augustine Girls’ High School (SAGHS).
Overcome with emotion, Gajadhar struggled to contain her tears, which rolled down her rosy cheeks as she made her way down the ramp.
After the ceremony, Gajadhar said she became teary-eyed when she was presented with her certificate because the last two years of her life was “a big struggle and the most difficult” since the one person she needed to give her the final push—her mother—was not physically there. Her mother Naindra died in 2001.
“I felt proud but emotional as well because it was a lot of hard work, and it’s now over,” she said.
“I know mom is here in spirit looking down from above and smiling for what I have achieved despite my disability. When I wanted to give up, there was always an inner voice that gave me the motivation to press on. I know that inner voice was my mom. I still miss her,” Gajadhar said bursting into tears.
Gajadhar said she would not have reached this far in life without the support of her father Deodath, who is her main pillar of strength, her two brothers, friends and God.
Gajadhar spoke of her tight schedule—teaching at school all day and then attending classes at the university on evenings.
“By the time I reach my Sangre Grande home I would take a nap, get up in the wees hours of the morning to study and do my assignments. Then it’s back to teaching again. For two years I did this, sacrificing everything to obtain my Masters. I will never tell anyone it was easy.”
Reverting to the fateful day of the accident, Gajadhar, who still lives in Sangre Grande, said she was in a maxi heading home on the Valencia Stretch when a vehicle collided with the maxi.
“I was left with spinal injuries. I became paralysed and was hospitalised for several months.”
At that time, Gajadhar was a Lower Six student of SAGHS.
“It was hard to overcome the fact that one minute you had the use of your legs and then, in the blink of an eye, there was no mobility in my legs.”
She took a year off from school and returned to classes to finish her A’ Level examinations.
From there it was no stopping Gajadhar.
She graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Sociology and Management. Then she got into teaching in 2002.
In 2012, she also obtained a postgraduate diploma (Dip Ed with distinction) at UWI.
“I am not going for my PhD. That is it for me,” she smiled.
Gajadhar has a message for able-bodied people and those with disabilities: “Nothing is impossible. You see something that looks impossible...there is always a way around it, you can achieve it no matter what.”