Paralysed, speech affected, Advocate Mishra back in court

Paralysed, speech affected, advocate Mishra back in court:
Manish Sahu / Tags : Mishra back in court / Posted: Monday , Nov 23, 2009 at 0544 hrs Lucknow: / on .indianexpress.com <http://www.indianexpress.com/news/paralysed-speech-affected-advocate-mishra-back-in-court/545032/0>

Two years after he was crippled in the bomb blast that rocked the Varanasi local court complex on November 23, 2007, advocate Vashisht Kumar Mishra has started picking up the pieces.

Though he needs help to stand and walk, Mishra recently began attending the court. Inside the courtroom, his juniors argue cases under his guidance as he remains seated.

With the lower half of his body affected by paralysis, the explosion had also caused disorder in his nervous system — his teeth keeps chattering causing him oral injuries. To prevent it, he stuffs his mouth with pads that prevent him from talking. But slowly and steadily, his clients are returning to him — a sign that makes him hopeful about life.

“One of my colleagues, who lives close to my place, takes me to the court every morning and drops me home,” says 48-year-old Mishra. He has to make regular visits to the Banaras Hindu University Hospital and Lucknow-based Vivekanand Hospital for treatment, which includes physiotherapy.

For Mishra and his family, the worst is over and for the first time in two years, they are hopeful that he would be leading a normal life.

Since Mishra was the sole breadwinner, the injury and long treatment had hit his family hard. His daughters — Pratika Mishra, Neharika and Vartika — had to discontinue their studies. “Since there was no help, we started taking tuitions at home,” says Pratika. “Our savings were spent, I had to sell my jewellery and our ancestral land in the village to pay hospital bills,” says Mishra’s wife Urmila.

Though the government had promised to meet the medical expenses of all the victims of the court blasts, the family has received only the initial Rs 50,000 — which was spent within a month. The total medical cost that Mishra had to bear now amounts to Rs 4 lakh.

Despite submitting his bills to Varanasi District Magistrate Ajay Upadhyay and making several rounds to government offices, the family’s wait for money continues.

When The Indian Express asked about the status of Mishra’s medical bills, Upadhyay said: “We have forwarded all the bills to the state government and I have sent reminders too.”

Nevertheless, the family is getting on. “I have now started contributing money to the house. I have asked my daughters to once again start their studies,” says Mishra. While Pratika and Neharika is pursing their Masters in botany and physics, the youngest, Vartika is doing her graduation in commerce.

For Mishra, the blast was very tragic. Not only because of his own injury but also because he saw his clerk, Ajay Pandey, junior attorney Brahm Prakash Sharma and seven others die.

He was so badly injured in the blast that he slipped into coma for 28 days and had to stay in hospital for six months.