As a kid he was into toy guns and cars. He not only played with them, but also made them.
When he grew up, the angry young man in him shifted his focus to martial arts while also working as a para-medic. He practised Karate, Kickboxing and Thai martial arts. He became an expert, won several medals and turned an instructor as well.
After a short break he turned to his childhood loves - target shooting and inventing. But maths was a bane. So he decided to learn the necessary maths required. He enrolled for Bachelor of Computer Applications(BCA) and finished his MCA from College of Engineering Trivandrum(CET).
Today Sidhartha Babu is Kerala’s state shooting champion in 50 m prone rifle category, a national record holder in shooting, an inventor and, yes, a paraplegic too.
I knock on the apartment door and wait for the marksman. When the door opens, I am greeted by a young, happy face - the face of a man who is on, quoting Sidhartha, ‘the path of enlightenment’.
An accident in 2002 made him a paraplegic. There was a time when he was ready to call it quits. “ I asked the doctors to give me euthanasia, after I gained consciousness and came to know about my condition. But they laughed it away. Fortunately I am in India. If it was in some other country, they might’ve considered my request,” he quips with his disarmingly, friendly grin.
He was bed ridden for almost a year. Everyone, even though they didn’t say it aloud, thought that his life was over. The general tendency, he believes, is to write-off physically challenged folks rather than look at what all things they can achieve. “ It’s evident in the cliched way in which the doctor breaks the news to amputees or paraplegics; ‘You will never walk again’. But that’s not true, we can walk with the help of a walker or crutches. I walked 3 km to attend the ‘Metallica’ concert in Bengaluru,” says the proud fan. Well, as the famous ‘Metallica’ song goes ‘open your mind for a different view and nothing else matters’.
Sidhartha currently lives in Bengaluru with his best friend and pet Crayon, a golden retriever. He comes down to Kerala once in a while for competitions or for visits.
Sidhartha believes that the accident made him a better person. “I was angry and martial arts was a way to express that anger. I ran away from maths, thus forgetting what I actually wanted to do. But after the accident I started to introspect, to understand what I am actually capable of. I had always avoided maths, blindly believing that it was not meant for me. But I realised that was not true during my CET days,” he adds.
He was amazed by how maths could describe things he loved, like the projectile motion of a bullet moving through the air and hitting a target. He also worked part-time for some tech firms during his CET days.
Sidhartha has invented many gadgets to help physically challenged folks. For instance a car hand-control that he uses in his car, special knee braces that helps people with paralysed legs to sit easily and a sports wheel chair. He is currently working on an ‘assistive palm’ for a quadriplegic patient.
It was during his CET days that he decided to take up target shooting seriously. But back then there were no shooting ranges in the city. In 2008 he travelled to Thodupuzha, to join a shooting range run by district shooting association. He had to deal with the ‘sympathy’ and indifferent attitude of the members Some of them felt that it was arrogant for a paraplegic with no prior experience or training to try professional shooting. “But when I insisted, the secretary budged and gave me five shots with a rifle to prove myself. It was a challenge. I shocked them with the first shot itself. I hit dead centre of the board. After that they began taking me a lot more seriously,” says Sidhartha. Only then was he allowed to use the range and its facilities.
Sidhartha has represented Kerala in several national para-shooting competitions and he is currently the national champion and record holder in para-shooting in 50 m prone rifle category. He has represented India in World Para-Shooting Championship as well.
“Shooting is a sport unlike any other. It has helped me a lot to sharpen my focus. You can’t think of anything else while aiming for the target. That is the only way to score a perfect 10. It is, for me, reaching a higher stage of life - a stage where you can imagine what exactly is going to happen,” tells the World No.20 among para-shooters. Who knows, just like his idol Miyamoto Musashi, the legendary ronin who found enlightenment through sword fighting, Sidhartha might one day find enlightenment through target shooting.
But at present, the excitement is all about being the Kerala state shooting champion in 50m prone rifle category competing with the mainstream marksmen. It is perhaps the first time in the sporting history of Kerala that a physically challenged shooter is winning a championship competing in the mainstream and it could help change the rules in international shooting, thus helping differently-abled shooters to compete along with mainstream marksmen in certain categories.
Right now he is revelling in his Kerala Championships success and is all pumped up at the prospect of competing against elite shooters of the country in 50 m prone rifle category of National Shooting Championship which will be held later this year. The 36-year-old marksman hopes to represent India in Tokyo Paralympics of 2020 in 50m prone rifle category. “That would be a dream come true as it will be held in the homeland of Miyamoto Musashi,” he proclaims with dreamy eyes. Fingers crossed!
