— Confucius

Satwant Singh Swatch from Naulari village, Khanna, appears to be a usual Punjabi farmer as he walks into the room. As he raises his hands to greet you “Sat Sri Akal”, you realise that he has prosthetic hands.

It was in 1995 that Satwant’s life changed forever. The 54-year-old farmer and an agricultural technocrat lost both his hands in a thresher. Depression and suicidal thoughts gripped him. But he pulled through only to set an example to the world.

Of his six acres, Satwant uses three acres to produce seeds of potato, wheat and vegetables and the rest for the usual rice-wheat rotation. “This gives me good income,” says Satwant, who is today a self-supporting man, thanks to the medical aid that he got from Canada. “Love and devotion of my wife Sukhwant Kaur has given me new lease of life,” he adds.

Recalling the accident, Satwant says, “It was in April 1995, when we were testing a new wheat seed that I had sown in my brother’s farm. We were calculating the yield, so I took over the threshing. I was wearing gloves of my elder brother, but before I could realise, my right hand was inside the machines. I tried to pull it out using my left hand but the machine sucked in both.”

He adds, “I was rushed to the hospital, where I was told that my right arm would have to be amputated as I had broken my bones at three places. Along with this, my left hand was also amputated.”

“After the accident, I felt that my life has ended. There was no way by which I could continue my job as an agricultural development officer with the state government, while farming seemed a distant dream. I felt as if I had become a burden on my brothers. It was during this phase that I approached our family guru and asked him to help me die. He asked me to accept this as God’s will. Then, I read about a Russian pilot who had lost both his arms and yet he flew the plane with his artificial arms,” he says.

“Later, I met Prof Gian Singh of Panjab University, who also had one of his hands amputated. He asked me to go to Canada for treatment,” adds Satwant. In Canada, when he was given artificial hands, the first thing he asked his trainer was to teach him how to drive a tractor.

Before the accident, Satwant worked as Agriculture Development Officer, and after coming back from Canada, he took numerous tests to prove to his seniors that he could work as any able person. “I was first sent to the then Senior Medical Officer posted at Ludhiana to get a fitness test and certificate. Seeing my eagerness to be back on the job, the doctor demanded a bribe of Rs 40,000, but I refused. Then I made a representation to the then Governor, who deputed an officer to test me and I wrote couplets from Gurbani. Then, I was taken back as the soil testing officer.”

Today, he is also general secretary of the Agriculture Officers’ Association, Ludhiana. “I knew that my growth in job was now restricted and hence I should look for new ways to enhance my income. I took to seed production, which gives me around Rs 80,000 to Rs 1 lakh per annum.”