Icon for Physically challenged with patriotic zeal

Ratinam Tangaraj proves that faith can work wonder

Ratinam Tangaraj, a postgraduate and diploma holder in engineering, started crawling from his childhood as he was physically challenged by birth as a result of polio. But, he did not lose his courage or hope to come up in life. He decided to dedicate his life at the adobe feet of Swami Vivekananda and joined as an employee at Vivekananda Kendra, Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu.

Not like others, he wanted to do some thing unique in his life, in spite of his disability and convinced his employer at the Kendra to a journey from Kanyakumari to Chennai from January 19 to February 6 this year.. He wanted to awaken the youth of his home State and enlighten them on the speeches of Swami Vivekananda.

After this mission, he did not stop his journey. He took another bold step of covering 2,600 km on his tricycle. Mr. Tangaraj named the yatra as “Narendra-Vivekananda Yatra” on the eve of 150th birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda. He started his journey from the house of the Swami at Kolkata on the day of Guru Pournima (July 22) and decided to cover West Bengal, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu to reach Kanyakumari by September 11.

He reached Rajahmundry via National Highway on Thursday and took a break at Lalacheruvu Centre. Mr. Tangaraj garlanded the statue of Raviprasad, Kargil War martyr, along with ABVP national executive member Kompella Sastry.

Speaking to The Hindu , Mr. Tangaraj said that he had covered 1,050 km till now and had not faced any problem throughout his journey. He is covering about 30 to 40 km a day and meeting college and school students on the way.

“Students of the State are not interested to join politics. But, they are waiting for a good leader to lead the country,” he said.