I always strongly believe that in life, whatever happens, happens for good and it happens for a certain reason. 

A few years ago I was on crutches for about six months. The feeling of a dependent and a glimpse of a handicapped person's life shook me when I met with a small accident says, Mukesh Anand an automotive parts dealer from Jabalpur and a very active social worker. 

He started a special scheme in Jabalpur for polio affected youngsters. He gave them the opportunity to work on spark plug testing and cleaning equipment at Bharat Petroleum outlets. Though this seems to be a small help it was a life-changing experience for the physically challenged polio affected youngsters who were very happy as they were now in a position to earn their livelihood.

Later in 1999, he was once called by a General to Delhi to help our wounded soldiers. More than 600 Kargil War wounded army reached out to the NGOs for their help.    

Without giving a second thought this 68 years old social worker handed his business to his younger brother and shifted to Delhi. He started an NGO, "Mission Vijay" specially to assists the wounded, disabled and also the retired soldiers of our country.  

Sepoy Om Prakash was one among those beneficiaries. The soldier from 3rd Battalion of Rajput Regiment was fighting fiercely against Pakistani soldiers in the Kargil war. All of a sudden his right leg was blown off by the rival soldiers. Brave Om Prakash drag himself several miles in that situation with the wounded leg to get some medical aid. He got treated and was discharged by the army hospital with a Jaipur foot. Yes, he lost his leg in the war and now was a disabled soldier. Very dejected he went back to his village in Pali in Haryana and had nothing to do. Anand came as a ray of sunshine in his life. He gave him a soft drink distribution agency. Today after almost nineteen years he not only expanded his distribution agency but also has a shop which stocks engine oil. He has 4 dumper trucks and soon plans to start his petrol pump with a mission of his son becoming an army officer. 

"The idea is to teach soldiers to start small businesses by investing some part of their savings and then gradually scale up," as told by Mukesh Anand to India Today.

Anand a son of an army colonel gives a ray of hope to the disabled soldiers and the war widows. He uses his networks and contacts in the private sector to set up a small business to helps them to settle in their villages with their families. 

As told to India Today, "Subedar Major Sahadevan is now a Hero MotoCorp sub-dealer in Palakkad, Kerala and Naik Rajkumar, a tyre dealer in Mahendragarh, Rajasthan. Pushpam Jha, who lost her husband Major Vineet Jha to cancer in 2004, is now a Hero MotoCorp sub-dealer in Bhagalpur."

 Anand says," It is an effort to provide self-employment opportunities for our soldiers. They defended our frontiers yesterday and today we are defending their tomorrows. It is a concept to bring them all back into action." 

He believes that to be a disable is to be set with problems. A small accident in his life actually changed his perspective in his life. And when our soldiers without giving a second thought and are always ready to give away their lives for our country, we as a nation owe our sincerest thanks to our brave soldiers who sacrifice their promising future for our security. 

On our Republic day let's Salute our soldiers and the Saviour of our Soldiers.