Boy with brittle bones becomes a Champion

He cannot play, dance or clap on his own. He cannot move or go to the toilet by himself. But once he enters the water, even fishes are stunned to see him swimming. He surprises the medical world by becoming an all rounder even though he is physically handicapped.

The young boy, Moin Mustaque Junned aged 12, surprises not only the medical field but also many a people of this modern world. He is the son of Mushthaq and Kausar , a native of Kudachi in Raibag taluk. Now residing at Ramthithnagar, Belgaum city of Karnataka State in India. Except the face, all other parts of his body look like a heap of flesh and bones. Hands exist but are useless for doing any work. Legs are not fully formed either for standing or any other physical movement. Chest, shoulder and stomach portions are dwarfed in size. It’s beyond the imagination and very difficult to create such a character for movies or any stage shows. He cannot have food by himself. He cannot urinate or go to the toilet without a person’s help. Not even an inch can he move without someone’s help. It’s impossible for him to sit, sleep or clap. He cannot turn his neck around. Oh! What a fate! But then, how did he win the championship at the National level? It’s unbelievable isn’t it? But it’s true and really a great wonder. He won the 10^th National level Paralympics swimming championship in 2009. The events that he participated were 50mt freestyle and 50mt backstroke. He won golds in both these events and became an amazing champ at the national level.

The speaker of the Indian parliament, Mr. Somanth Chatterjee was surprised to see such a physically challenged guy and remarked, “ Oh! Is that guy taking part in the championships?” He had later encouraged the boy to go ahead and inaugurate the championships. Everyone was moved at the sight when he inaugurated.

Moin, even though very weak physically, shows strong confidence in his words, when someone speaks to him. This strong confidence has led him to become the champion at the national level. The handicap hasn’t let him down anyway. He has all habits that a 12 year has. He learns English and Arabic. He can read Quran fluently in Arabic language. He laughs, cries, shows interest in learning new things, he is naughty, quarrels with his mum, makes fun and asks irrelevant questions. He never looks sad because he cannot play, run, dance or clap. Hats off to this guy for being so enthusiastic.

People who think, “there are no hopes in life” should have a look at this boy once, before they decide to take any further decision. Surely, they’ll feel that they must learn to live and never get depressed for any kind of serious matters coming across in life.

Moin has learned to live within the restricted borders. His hands donot help him to hold anything but still he plays games on Cell phone, sends messages, plays Carrom with brothers. Other personal works of his are done by Grandfather or his mother.

“ You’ve become a Champion now, how do you feel?”, when this question was asked to him he said, “it needs immense power to be a champ. I want be a much bigger champion and swim at the international level. I have to win medals. I’ll take it as a challenge.”

How did Moin become a Champion?

Even a handshake with Moin would be very painful to him and can fracture his hand bones. He has such a delicate physique. The person who taught him swimming was Belgaum’s famous swim coach, Mr. Umesh Kalaghatagi.

His mum, Kausar had tried to contact the Chief minister of Karnataka when he came for the inauguration of the new swimming pool. But she was stopped by the security personnel and was not allowed to meet him. She wanted to ask help from the CM, for Moin’s studies. At the sametime, the coach Umesh who was present at the spot saw Moin. He took a tough decision to train Moin for swimming. Umesh had trained many a physically challenged children and trained them to become swimmers. He gave free coaching to Moin. He also has drems for Moin’s future. Thanks to this coach for helping Moin become a champ in just 7 months. He now plans to take Moin to the international level.

Moin has challenged the Medical world by showing the extraordinary talent even when he suffered from the disease of zero-bone calcium. One in 60,000 children in this world suffer from brittle bone disease. It comes due to the deficiency of a protein called Collagen. No children born with this disease could perform such a feat and reach this height. Calculations of the medical field went wrong when it was Moin.