<p>A paraplegic former India Air Force (IAF) officer, a source of inspiration to many from his hospital cabin for the last 25 years, passed away in Pune on Tuesday.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Born at Chirayinkizhu, on the outskirts of Thiruvananthapuram, M P Anil Kumar was a strapping 24-year-old MiG-21 pilot in 1988, who was about to be posted in the 4 Squadron after completing his training in 30 Squadron. But as fate would have it, MP–as he was popularly known–met with an accident.<br /><br />On June 28, the officer was returning to the mess in Pathankot at around 11 pm when his motorbike rammed into a barrier inside the air force station. The impact of the helmet on the wooden bar wrenched his neck and broke his cervical spine.<br /><br />The accident and his subsequent shifting to various military hospitals without properly immobilising his neck paralysed him neck downwards. He spent the remaining 26 years of his life at the Defence Ministry’s Paraplegic Rehabilitation Centre (PRC), Pune.<br /><br />But unlike other quadriplegic individuals, MP bravely fought his disability from the hospital bed. First he learnt to write by holding a pen in his mouth and later used the keyboard of a computer with a stylus that he held with his mouth.<br /><br />For the next several years, he wrote articles to various newspapers, magazines and websites on topics as diverse as his life and disability to Indian cricket. He also maintained his own blog, which fetched him admirers from all over the world.<br /><br />“He is like our own Christopher Reeves,” commented another MiG-21 pilot, who was junior to MP but trained in the same 30 Squadron. Reeves was a Hollywood actor, who played the role of Superman on screen but became quadriplegic in real life.<br /><br />Though the IAF relieved him from service in 1990, MP always had a string of visitors from the Air Force community. <br /><br />“Whenever any of us goes to Pune, we drop by at the PRC to meet him,” said an IAF officer. Former IAF chief N A K Browne, too, honoured him during his visit to the PRC in 2012.<br /><br />His inspirational story made it to school text-books in Maharashtra and Kerala. But his quarter-century long struggle came to an end on Tuesday, when he took off for his final sortie after losing the battle with leukaemia.</p>
<p>A paraplegic former India Air Force (IAF) officer, a source of inspiration to many from his hospital cabin for the last 25 years, passed away in Pune on Tuesday.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Born at Chirayinkizhu, on the outskirts of Thiruvananthapuram, M P Anil Kumar was a strapping 24-year-old MiG-21 pilot in 1988, who was about to be posted in the 4 Squadron after completing his training in 30 Squadron. But as fate would have it, MP–as he was popularly known–met with an accident.<br /><br />On June 28, the officer was returning to the mess in Pathankot at around 11 pm when his motorbike rammed into a barrier inside the air force station. The impact of the helmet on the wooden bar wrenched his neck and broke his cervical spine.<br /><br />The accident and his subsequent shifting to various military hospitals without properly immobilising his neck paralysed him neck downwards. He spent the remaining 26 years of his life at the Defence Ministry’s Paraplegic Rehabilitation Centre (PRC), Pune.<br /><br />But unlike other quadriplegic individuals, MP bravely fought his disability from the hospital bed. First he learnt to write by holding a pen in his mouth and later used the keyboard of a computer with a stylus that he held with his mouth.<br /><br />For the next several years, he wrote articles to various newspapers, magazines and websites on topics as diverse as his life and disability to Indian cricket. He also maintained his own blog, which fetched him admirers from all over the world.<br /><br />“He is like our own Christopher Reeves,” commented another MiG-21 pilot, who was junior to MP but trained in the same 30 Squadron. Reeves was a Hollywood actor, who played the role of Superman on screen but became quadriplegic in real life.<br /><br />Though the IAF relieved him from service in 1990, MP always had a string of visitors from the Air Force community. <br /><br />“Whenever any of us goes to Pune, we drop by at the PRC to meet him,” said an IAF officer. Former IAF chief N A K Browne, too, honoured him during his visit to the PRC in 2012.<br /><br />His inspirational story made it to school text-books in Maharashtra and Kerala. But his quarter-century long struggle came to an end on Tuesday, when he took off for his final sortie after losing the battle with leukaemia.</p>
