My wife Yash and I can vividly recall each moment related to the life of Maurya, our first-born. The arrival of our son Maurya on July 11, 2012, was a watershed moment for us. Everybody’s journey on planet Earth is different, yet there are commonalities in certain universal experiences that bind us together as a race with emotional chords.

Our life struggles with Maurya set us on unexpected paths. Between Maurya’s early toddler stage and the 2020 present, it has been an emotional roller-coaster ride. Maurya endured eight years of doctors, hospitals, tests, therapies, diagnoses, and misdiagnoses. My wife and I went through stages of denial and desperation. We garnered our strength and we persevered. To top it all, I was down with acoustic neuroma and battled it with strength and hope.

In the year 2020, Maurya, in his way, is a success story. He is a happy child, a caring brother to his one-year-old sister Disha, and a loving cousin to our niece Moksha. He is very amiable and amusing, plays the piano well, wins spelling bees, passionately builds Legos, plays X-box games, and excels at both math and science. He loves watching the NFL and NBA games and also loves plants and animals. He continues to play wheelchair basketball.This is my emotional journey. This is my story. A story about strength, triumph, and hope.