A disabled infant, half a century ago. Now, a prominent and prosperous industrialist. Polio struck him when he was an infant and disabled him for life. But it also proved to be a "perpetual spur in himself to rescue and deliver himself from scorn" That infant evoking pity in near and dear ones and scorn in others, now, half a century later, draws forth all-round admiration. He is a prominent and prosperous industrialist - provider of jobs to others and a source of inspiration to other disabled human beings struggling to survive and earn their livelihood.

The industrialist, endowed with Herculean resolve and heightened mental faculties, is Subbanna, whose success story has earned him many awards and distinguished positions, the latest being the District Governorship of the Lions International. It is said that "where nature erreth in the one (body or mind) she ventureth in the other." A living example of this is Subbanna.

During his childhood in Bangarupeta village of Nellore district, Andhra Pradesh, whenever he saw other children playing merrily tears would well up in his eyes. "Why am I condemned to crawl?" his soul would scream. Pitying looks were all that he could see through his blurred eyes.

There was no joy in his infancy. He has had very little formal education for the simple reason that he was physically unable to attend school. While the children in the village went to school daily, Subbanna had to crawl from one hospital to an other and plead desperately with doctors to cure him of the seemingly unhealable disability.

The local doctors in Nellore town, which is a little away from his native village, expressed their helplessness and advised him to go to Mumbai or Delhi for treatment. The hope of overcoming the disability looked frustratingly remote.

But that hope, however distant and unattainable, still animated him. Propelled by that hope, one day Subbanna, still in his teens, crawled out of home and struggled on to a bus to Tirumala to seek the blessings of Lord Venkateshwara. From there he embarked on the long journey to the Institute of physical medicine and rehabilitation, Mumbai.

After a few operations and a stay of three months, the doctors in Mumbai sent the boy to Delhi for another series of surgeries. A few months later, in the early 1960s, Subbanna reached Hyderabad to be among the first few patients at the Nizam's Orthopaedic Hospital, as the Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) used to be called then.

During the three years that he spent dragging himself from one place to another, Subbanna lost touch with his family. To his horror, he came to know that his parents, having failed to trace him, had given him up for dead and even performed, symbolically, the funeral rites. But when they realized their deadly mistake, they experienced a tumult of joy.

Back in Hyderabad, he approached the Vocational Rehabilitation Centre for the Handicapped for undergoing training in carpentry. After the training, he joined the Federal Sports Industries on a monthly salary of Rs.250. Later, the VRCH helped him to obtain a loan of Rs.15,000 from the State Finance Corporation to start a small woodwork unit. Fortune began to smile on him. He built up his business painstakingly. He started receiving orders for manufacturing tables, cane chairs and metal furniture from various schools and industries.

Subbanna registered himself as a contractor with various nationalized banks. With his annual turnover now touching Rs. One crore, he has become a source of abundant inspiration to the handicapped person both in India and abroad.

To demonstrate his concern for the uplift of unfortunate people, Subbanna married an orphan. And his marriage has proved to be a happy one. He has a daughter and a son both of whom are graduates. The small family radiates cheerfulness, which is the fruit of ceaseless toil.