The Department of Cultural Education, Amrita School of Engineering, Coimbatore campus, organized a motivational session for the first year students of Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham as part of their cultural education orientation course on January 23, 2017. 

The motivational speaker, Preethi Srinivasan is the co-founder of Soulfree along with her mother, Mrs. Vijayalakshmi Srinivasan. Growing up as a national level swimmer and a state level cricket player, Preethi Srinivasan had a freak accident in Pondicherry, India. She completely lost her identity in the span of a split second from being a bright young student and sportsperson to a person confined to a wheelchair for over 14 years now. With her family as her backbone, she reached a state of equipoise that allows her to smile despite desperately heart wrenching circumstances. 

Through her talk on ‘Secrets of Successful Living’, Preethi Srinivasan shared her life experiences with the students, her struggles and challenges after the accident and her efforts to make Indian society less discriminatory towards the differently abled. Preethi made the students accept a 10 minute challenge to remain immobilized in their seats for ten minutes to experience the pain and difficulty of a paraplegic like her. After the 10 minute challenge, the students realized what a blessing it is to have a normal body and good health. She cautioned the students to avoid spinal cord injuries by following safety rules during activities like sports, driving and to avoid risky feats.

Narrating her own experience, she impressed upon the students that money and creature comforts are not the only goals of life. Human relationships and a life of happiness are far more valuable than materialistic goals. The students were deeply touched and inspired to listen to Preethi and they all agreed to help and contribute to the cause of making our society more compassionate and inclusive towards the needs of the differently abled.