With a Master’s Degree of Science in Electronics and a BEd degree in Mathematics and Physics, Sukhada Marathe started her career as a manager/faculty at Digicom Computer Education in Mapusa, and later worked as an assistant professor of Physics at the Government College Sanquelim and at Dempo Higher Secondary School of Science (PACE), Miramar. She was a Physics consultant for foundation builder courses for classes 7, 8, 9, and 10 at Dempo HSSC (PACE Miramar), Almeida (Ponda) and Sharada Mandir (Miramar). She also taught in a mixed classroom where students from different school boards including State Boards, CBSE, and ICSE were taught together in classes 11 and 12.
Into teaching since 2013, and singing, acting, directing plays, Sukhada’s life came to a standstill when she met with a near-fatal accident in June 2019. Due to an internal injury to her spine, her C2, C3 discs (which connect the brain to the rest of the body) were compressed. The 28-year-old teacher underwent four cervical surgeries in a month and spent the next eight months in the hospital, in a total vegetable condition.
“It’s a new lease of life that I am enjoying after two near-death-experiences that made me touch the thin line between life and death but come back to my senses, both the times,” says Sukhada recalling how only her brain was working while every other part of her body was immobile. Even the doctors treating her had given up hope that she would make it.
She remembers, “I had lost my speech, complete body control but could see and hear. I couldn’t move an inch or feel if my body existed. I was in the ICU on a ventilator for 28 days with a hole (tracheotomy) in the neck for oxygen supply. Another pipe was in the nose for food supply, and a catheter. But my internal organs were intact and working. All this while I could do only one thing “ think.”
Breaking the bigger challenges into smaller ones, Sukhada concentrated on a book she read earlier on ‘Law of Attraction.’ She grasped what the book meant and tried to put it into practice. The book said, ‘manifest what you desire; and you will get it.’
To come out of ventilator she had to breathe. After four-five failed attempts of trying to breathe, she finally succeeded to switch from ventilator to oxygen. The struggle of regaining ability to breathe lasted for seven months and finally she was able to breathe and speak. Sukhada hadn’t given up. Looking at food with gratitude, and she prayed that it nourishes her body. “I feel the universe gives you time to zero in on your wants. Once you are sure of what you want, then it showers it on you. Deep inside, I wanted to get healed. But my body was still not responding to my thoughts. I could not move even a finger. Finally, I came home in January 2020 after eight months of the June 3 accident,” she quips.
Back home she had to relearn how to swallow food, chew, drink, hold a pen, etc. Continuing physiotherapy and beginning with small skills she mastered each activity meticulously - learning to speak, to smell, to understand touch, to sit up. “I gradually increased my sitting capacity to one hour, but could not eat on my own. I had to be fed. Even today I cannot bend my neck or tilt my head, or take sudden jerks. I have to maintain certain position even on a wheelchair,” shares Sukhada.
By then the pandemic was announced. She stayed put at home. The world was shut including schools, colleges and as such many students needed guidance. A hardcore teacher, Sukhada thought of taking online classes for students who contacted her with requests. With her students support and positivity as her tool, she managed to start teaching. This was the birth of Sukhada Tutorials in June 2020. In 2021 she started offline teaching with a small group of students at her home.
Meanwhile, Sukhada’s father juggled between taking care of his daughter, and also his wife who used to live in and out of hospital. “My mother remained ill most of the time and my father sacrificed his life looking after both of us. It is because of his constant motivation that today I am alive,” says a humble Sukhada who lost her mother to brain stroke in September 2022.
Today, Sukhada’s students look at her as a role model for resilience, persistence and scientific approach. Her die-hard spirit has led her to become a successful entrepreneur who runs ‘Sukhada Tutorials’ at Assagao and Sanquelim. She wants to start a rehab for people like her who were not born disabled but became later due to some mishap. “I want to be the wind beneath their wings,” concludes Sukhada.
