Living Life Stronger and Determined
There are things in life many take for granted. For example, a walk to the nearby shop or an afternoon stroll. Pranay Hukum, 51, has never been able to take a normal stride. Yet, he has lived life in leaps and bounds.
He suffers from a condition called genetic muscular dystrophy.
Muscular dystrophy is a group of diseases that cause progressive weakness and loss of muscle mass. In muscular dystrophy, abnormal genes (mutations) interfere with the production of proteins needed to form healthy muscle.
Despite this and the unfortunate cards dealt to him by life, Mr Hukum has never backed down from a challenge.
For someone, whose daily life became a challenge, he is ready to tell you five reasons why things are possible when you give three reasons for the contrary.
He was bullied, mocked, and denied opportunities in life because of his disability. This made him stronger and determined.
This is the story of a man who had not been able to stand up on his two feet until he was 11 years old.
Not like other children
Mr Hukum was born in Labasa in 1970. By the age of five, when all other children were running around, he was still crawling.
By this time his parents realised that their son was not like other children.
Mr Hukum can clearly recall that day in 1975 when his parents brought him to Suva where he joined the Hilton Home in Brown Street.
“It was heartbreaking for me. My parents were the only support I knew and here I was being left at a home at the mercy of others,” he said.
“I was sad. I had never stayed alone anywhere. I remember crying for days until I started becoming familiar with the Catholic nuns who ran the place.
“One of my closest friends was a boy from Papua New Guinea, he had no limbs at all.”
He said there were 23 of them living at the Hilton Home, children of different ethnic backgrounds with different disabilities.
Life at home was about discipline and routine. Mr Hukum recalled being taken to school on a bus and brought back home.
He attended normal classes at the Hilton School. Over the course of five years, Mr Hukum underwent a series of surgeries which were done to extend his muscles and tendons.
By the age of 11, he was able to stand on his two feet, but walking was another story. He could not take normal stride instead his motion was one which required him to twist his body side to side to take steps.
Not accepted at a normal school
Sometime in late 1980, Mr Hukum returned home to Tabia in Labasa. He was a bright student and had attended normal classes at Hilton.
He was ready for school. But that was not to be.
The then head of Tabia Sanatan
Primary told his parents that the school was not ready to take liability for the child should he fall, or anyone push him.
This was the first time he was denied an opportunity.
Mr Hukum had to wait another five years to return to school. In 1985, Labasa Special School opened its doors.
Mr Hukum joined the school and finally managed to finish his education there. He was ready to take on the world.
“The incident at Tabia Primary School really hurt me. I was ready to take the abuse and the teasing. I just wanted a chance to finish my education,” he said.
“That was the day I also realised that I needed to be stronger.” A working man
By the late 1980s, Mr Hukum was ready for work. His first place of employment was Sharma’s Electronics in Labasa.
“I was a technician’s boy. I was there to learn a few things and gain experience. While I was working there, I applied for work at AWA Communications and was accepted,” he said.
“In 1990, I left Labasa again. Upon arriving in Suva, I was informed that the company would start a bit later because there were some issues with licensing.
“I was lucky enough to have found work at the Bank of New Zealand. I was there for a few months as a telephone receptionist. These roles were relieving roles. So, if a telephone receptionist went on leave or a position became empty, I used to relieve the post.”
After BNZ, Mr Hukum worked at Bajpai’s Supermarket. He also worked at Nivis Motors for a while and was able to attend the Fiji National Training Council.
He then worked for the ANZ bank before becoming a bus checker at Tacirua Transport.
He spent a year as a garment machinist. In 2001, he joined Courts Fiji Limited where he was awarded the employee of the year, that same year. He stayed there for three years until joining the Colonial War Memorial Hospital.
He was there for a few months before being transferred to the St Giles Hospital. He had been the voice on the phone at the hospital for 17 years.
In August, he decided to call it quits, as his condition started worsening.
Making a home
Most of his working life, Mr Hukum stayed with a friend who was a bus driver. He said he was forever grateful to this man because at a time when no one offered him a place to stay, he found love and shelter at this man’s place.
“My friend Ranjit was a bus driver. I stayed at his place until the time he left for New Zealand. It was in the late 1990s when I moved into a HART home,” he said.
“I was married by this time. I had two children. I was able to save money and buy land and slowly over the years, I have been able to build a home.”
Mr Hukum said his first marriage did not last and his wife and children left for overseas.
He said his belief in God led him to find a life partner who has given him two more children and made his house a home.
Times change
Mr Hukum said he has been mocked and teased.
He said it was because he could not walk properly. But he challenged himself daily. He said even with his disability he caught the bus.
He said one of the biggest things in life he had faced was being robbed of opportunities because of his disability.
He said compared to when he was young, things have changed for the better for people with disabilities.
He said he hoped Fiji would come at a juncture to realise that people with disabilities are still people and all they want is the same opportunities as a normal person would get.