Class VIII Unit-1 On the Wings of Wishes-A Shattered Dream

M P Anil Kumar 

He served as a MiG-21 pilot in the Indian Air Force until when a road accident left him paralaysed below the neck. He was just 24.
Since then he has lived in the military's Paraplegic Rehabilitation Centre in Pune.
Today Anil Kumar uses a keyboard with his mouth and is a gifted writer whose by-line rediff.com readers will instantly recognise. An article he wrote about his disability was so inspirational that it found its way in school textbooks in Maharashtra.
M P Anil Kumar comes from a small village about 35 kilometres from Thiruvananthapuram. At the age of 9, he left home to join the Sainik School. After spending some time there he made up his mind to join the air force one day.
He underwent training at the NDA for three years. Thrown in the cauldron of multi-faceted, multi-dimensional training, the cadets hardly got enough time to interact with each other, primarily because of the fact that there is no time from rigorous training. He actively indulged in all the games that were on offer and was particularly good at football, basketball, hockey, volleyball, cricket and athletics.
Not only that, MP was good at studies too.  It came as no surprise that MP was awarded the 'best in aerobatics' trophy at the end of training at the Academy.