Life is beautiful

One time cop, now an IT expert:

By Shanika Sriyananda

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“Isn’t life beautiful?”, Pradeep asks while stopping ‘the journey’ through the 3 dimensional luxury house that he has designed, for a while.

I am breathless and fail even to nod my head in agreement with him. Pradeep is one of the most courageous young men that I have ever met. My tear-filled eyes blur his happy face.

I’m wondering as to how he could tell that life can be beautiful when he cannot even move about as he did a decade ago. How can I give a negative response to this unsinkable soul. Never imagined to see such a courageous man, I let him answer.

“To me... my life is beautiful now than earlier”, his tone is strong enough to show his endless determination. Common about him is that he is disabled. The truth is that his fate made him disabled. And the fact is that Pradeep who is paralysed from the waist down is able to carry out his self taught IT expert work, designing 3 dimensional houses where the owner can view a full house.

Though confined to a mere world where his wheel chair takes him around in his house in Nugegoda, Pradeep keeps in touch with the world through the Web.

“Disability is not a cause to worry. The whole world is at your fingertips”, says Pradeep who has mastered the Internet and learnt the latest trends in information technology through the net.

“I studied photo-shop, corel draw, illustrator for graphic designing, 3D max, Poster....”, he goes on with the multi-media packages that he had mastered. October 23, 1999, it wasn’t yet another day for the young cop, SI Pradeep de Silva, who was serving at the Kotahena Crime Detection Bureau.

It was a day that the Acting OIC of the Bureau, was hit by accidental gunfire by a colleague near the Borella Supermarket. The bullet, misfired from the revolver of one of his subordinates, who accompanied him to apprehend a suspect, was to as Pradeep now puts it, signal ‘my rebirth’.

The bullet entered from behind and exited from the chest damaging Pradeep’s central nervous system paralysing him from the waist downwards.

The newly married young officer, who mostly served in the North, found his bubbly dream shattered before him while lying in the Police Hospital bed, unable to move and unable to think what was in store for him. He never thought that his life would be ‘beautiful’ again.

Even compensation did not come his way on a platter. After a six-year long struggle Pradeep received his dues, but it was not enough to pay for the medical bills or the surgery at the Mount Elizabeth Hospital, Singapore.

But fate opened another door to him. A few brushes and white paper given by one of his friends helped make his artistic talents bloom.

The disabled cop turned into an artist and was finally able to collect the money he needed for his surgery. He did not recovery totally, but with improvement following surgery, Pradeep went about his new vocation of putting brush to paper without depending on others.

Nothing could stop Pradeep’s determination to stand on his own feet. While brush strokes brought out paintings, he searched ways and means by which he could become financially viable. As he could not move out of home, he planned to pursue his career from his little domain. The internet brought the whole world to his finger tips.

Slowly but steadily Pradeep restarted life believing in the slogan “I can”. Perseverance did wonders. He concentrated on studying more while painting. He fought a battle against his own fate to turn the unexpected misery into the good.

In 2007, Pradeep launched his website (www.pradeepdesilva.com) at a ceremony attended by the late Sir Arthur C. Clarke. Today, Pradeep has embarked on a new journey. It is designing houses using 3D images.

“I can show a client a walk through his or her dream house before the project gets off the ground. It certainly would be an advantage to any architect. Clients can do any alteration that they wish”, he says showing one of the latest 3D houses he has designed.

Now lecturing to engineers and architects about 3D images used in architecture, Pradeep is conducting classes for them to earn a living. He hopes to disseminate the IT knowledge that he self learnt to many. “Teaching IT to students will help me earn a living and show the world that disability does not bar anyone from learning the most latest IT technology”, he says.

Prudes is a man with lots of plans for the future. He says he doesn’t have time to regret his disability or the unpredictable future. He lives out today and does the best he can to achieve his plans, not ‘dreams’, he says. He is now doing an E -magazine ‘Sithuvili , and requests people to send articles, short stories, feature articles and whatever stories to motivate others to him.

The man, who once cried out for a future while in a hospital bed, wants to help the needy through his small project through this magazine. Penning down his life story he will launch his autobiography shortly.

And he plans to hold an exhibition with 3D video creations of his and his students.

“Everyday, we hear how difficult and how harsh life is. You must always be positive and not negative. I want to show the world that there is a ‘light at the end of the tunnel’. I want everyone to realize that we can find beauty through the difficulties in life. That is my wish for all, my dream for myself and my hope for everyone”, smiles Pradeep trying to adjust his lifeless legs.

The late scientist Arthur C. Clarke thus wrote of Pradeep, “Pradeep de Silva is a remarkable young man.

I have known him for a long time.

He has been sending me overwhelming messages of gratitude. I am astonished at his achievements. While being in a wheel chair.

I had never met anybody else with so much courage, self confidence and pure determination until I met Pradeep.”

The fact is that Pradeepwould be confined to a home for the disabled if not for his sheer courage to swim against the tide; most importantly against his own fate.

Cannot the Police Department which Pradeep dutifully served when he met with the tragedy that decapacitated him, step in to make use of their former employee’s new talents?