An army truck carrying the troops was about to reach Kulekhani when a landmine exploded, propelling Aryal in the air and disposing him on the roadside. All he remembers is seeing his fellow soldiers lying on the ground covered in blood. Before he could crawl any further, Aryal felt a throbbing pain in his head and then everything went dark. He woke up a week later at the Army Hospital in Chhauni and found out that the attack had left his lower body paralysed.
After four years in and out of the hospital, Aryal returned home in a wheelchair. That was not how the young soldier had envisioned his life when he joined the army in 2002 and he remembered the times when his family had begged him, unsuccessfully, to leave the security force. “Friends and relatives, who respected me because of my job, began avoiding me and my family and took pity on us. It was the most painful time in my life,” he recalls.
Aryal, however, didn’t let anyone or anything come in the way of his recovery. Even while he was being treated in the hospital, the native of Rupandehi, who had a keen interest in art since childhood, picked up his brush again as a form of therapy. After his first painting of a peacock sold for Rs 1,500, he was encouraged to pursue the hobby further.
To keep his mind occupied, Himal began vocal training and learnt to play the guitar. But regaining physical strength was equally important which led him to take up weight lifting and wheelchair basketball.
Bikram Rai