05 February, 2019, Bengaluru: Imagine, you are nineteen years old. One morning, you wake up and realize that you cannot see. You are in a state of disbelief and people tell you that the blind can only make cane furniture or be telephone operators. But you refuse to be corralled. You believe you can do much more, and you actually do.
This is the story of Divyanshu Ganatra, for whom achieving firsts and setting records is par for the course. He is the first blind Indian to paraglide solo, the first blind tandem cyclist to ride from Manali to Khardung La and the first blind student to earn a Master’s Degree in Psychology from Pune University back in the early ’90s when neither technology nor administration was supportive. This is not all. Divyanshu is the founder of the Adventure Beyond Barriers Foundation, which organizes outdoor adventure activities ranging from scuba diving to mountaineering for people with or without disability. He is also the founder of Yellow Brick Road, where he dons the hat of a facilitator specializing in emotional intelligence and achievement motivation courses.
Divyanshu Ganatra, Founder, Adventure Beyond Barriers Foundation, delivers a talk at IIMB.
Divyanshu Ganatra is a clinical psychologist, researcher, behavioral facilitator, and self-made serial entrepreneur. He is also a corporate facilitator and adventure enthusiast. may have lost his eyesight to glaucoma at the age of nineteen, but he did not lose his resolve. He carved a path for himself full of opportunity, hope and adventure. After a close brush with death and being told that he will never climb again, he has scaled some of the highest peaks in the Himalayas. Divyanshu’s most recent achievement has been to successfully complete an expedition to Mt. Kilimanjaro.
He visited the IIMB campus on January 11, 2019 to deliver a motivational talk at an event co-hosted by the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Cell (EnI) and the Office of Diversity and Inclusion (DnI) at IIM Bangalore.
“The next generation of leaders who are being groomed here must gain a perspective on the untapped talent pool that comprises people with disability,” he said.
The first story he narrated was his dream to fly and his struggles for seven years to find an instructor who would be willing to train him. Once he found the right instructor, it was merely a matter of five days to learn how to fly. He earned a pilot’s license. “The reason for my success was that I understood it did not matter what people thought or said as nobody has the power to influence one’s thoughts and imagination.”
When quizzed on the challenges he had to overcome, he explained that it is not living with disability that is a challenge, but the attitude of people that is a major issue. “The reason for this is that most people do not know much about people with disability. This is the largest invisible minority population in the world,” he remarked. Although Divyanshu can move to either Europe or the USA, where life for the visually impaired could perhaps be easier, he said he had decided to live and work in India, give something back to the community and take the initiative to make life better for everyone.
He concluded the talk by saying that the world would be a much better place if people developed empathy. “I hope that the next generation of executives will be more informed and more open to a diverse set of colleagues in their workplace,’ he added.
Divyanshu with a few IIMB PGP students.
A regular at various stages and speaking commitments around the world, Divyanshu urges his audience to push their boundaries, challenge themselves, and think beyond. He is known to have changed lives through interactions and public speaking commitments.
Arun Nayan Singh is a student of PGP 2018-20 at IIMB and a member of the Student Media Cell.