#Swimmingagainstthetide

May 16
2 min

Turning Difficulties into Opportunities

On 15th May, 2007, I received this attached report from a renowned orthopaedic surgeon in Chennai. After seeing my spine X ray and listening to me about my health complications which are the results of Post Polio Syndrome (like severe spine compression, unbearable muscle and bone weakness), the doctor without uttering a single word to me started dictating the attached report to his PA. My mind became blank after hearing his dictation and immediately tears started rolling dow

4 views0 comments

Madhavi Latha Prathigudupu

May 10
2 min

My Acting Journey and My Mom

As you all know we made a short film recently in which I played a role too apart from writing the story ! I would like to share with you all how my acting journey started and the impact of my mom's advice in my sincere effort. A few years ago, to participate in a short film competition in my organization, our team decided to make a short film basing on my life story. I only played my character in the film. My colleague Raman Palanikumar directed it. I never forget the trouble

1 view0 comments

Appreciation for my book from UK Minister of State for Defence Procurement

Madhavi Latha Prathigudupu

Apr 22
1 min

Appreciation for my book from UK Minister of State for Defence Procurement

Wow !!! What a great feeling😍😍 Receiving an appreciation letter from Mr Jeremy Quin MP, Minister of State for Defence Procurement, UK Ministry of Defence after going through my book #Swimmingagainstthetide. I was supposed to meet him at a get-together arranged by British Dy High Commissioner on the eve of Queen's Birthday. I thought of presenting my book to him on that day. But due to the change in his schedule, I could not meet him. But BDHC, Chennai Oliver Ballhatchet MBE

3 views0 comments

Madhavi Latha Prathigudupu

Mar 31
1 min

Fireside chat at KLA

Recently I was invited by WISE (Women In STEM Empowered), a global Employee Resource Group (ERG) of KLA for a fireside chat which was very well moderated by Narayani (Nani) Narasimhan What a warm welcome and very lovely audience I had there ! After pandemic, I think this is my first talk addressing people in person (apart from my book #Swimmingagainstthetide release related events). Generally in in-person talks, we will get lot of motivation from the audience, to speak. In m

17 views0 comments

Queen's Birthday Celebrations held at British Deputy High Commission, Chennai.

Madhavi Latha Prathigudupu

Mar 19
1 min

Queen's Birthday Celebrations held at British Deputy High Commission, Chennai.

Recently I got a nice opportunity to present my book #swimmingagainstthetide to British High Commissioner for India Mr Alex Ellis at Queen's Birthday Celebrations held at British Deputy High Commission, Chennai 😍 Glad to know that Alex has a fair idea about Paralympic sports and particularly about wheelchair basketball sport🤩 Wholehearted thanks to Mr Oliver, BDHC, Chennai for giving me this opportunity🙏🙏🙏🙏

0 views0 comments

The interview that gave me immense pleasure 😍

Madhavi Latha Prathigudupu

Feb 3
1 min

The interview that gave me immense pleasure 😍

Till now I gave many interviews after the release of my book #SwimmingAgainstTheTide. But yesterday's interview is very special for me. One of my friends Saikrishnan Purushothaman gifted my book to his friend's daughter Samhitaa Krishna who is studying 12th grade at Asan Memorial Secondary School, Chennai. After reading that book she spoke to me and told me with a lot of excitement how much she was inspired and impressed with my experiences. She didn't stop with that. She sha

21 views1 comment

Madhavi Latha Prathigudupu

Dec 22, 2021
1 min

Journey to Gold - RRD

My dear friend Amardeep Devadason and his organisation RRD have been extending amazing support for my activities to empower persons with disabilities through various initiatives with an emphasis on sports. Now as they understood very well the main objective behind writing my story (to promote more inclusion in the society) #SwimmingAgainstTheTide, they arranged this fireside chat! I thoroughly enjoyed having a lively and cheerful conversation with Amar. He helped in bringing

1 view0 comments

Wishing all my friends who celebrate thanksgiving day, a very happy and blessed Thanksgiving!

Madhavi Latha Prathigudupu

Nov 25, 2021
1 min

Wishing all my friends who celebrate thanksgiving day, a very happy and blessed Thanksgiving!

The attached pics were taken at the Thanksgiving reception arranged by Judith Ravin, Consul General, U.S. Consulate General Chennai! I presented my book #SwimmingAgainstTheTide to her as a token of my heartfelt thanks for the great support extended by @U.S. Consulate General Chennai & U.S. Department of State for our endeavours to promote wheelchair basketball in India by inviting 15 of our wheelchair basketball coaches and administrators to the USA under their Sports Visitor

3 views0 comments

The opportunity to meet our honourable Vice President of India

Madhavi Latha Prathigudupu

Sep 21, 2021
1 min

The opportunity to meet our honourable Vice President of India

When I got the opportunity to meet our honourable Vice President of India to present my book “Swimming Against the Tide”, I thought that if he could read my book, how nice and helpful it would be! As I know that he is a voracious reader, a lover of literature and a famous orator, him reading my book would be an honour for me. And, I strongly felt it would be helpful for the community of persons with disabilities considering his august position in our country. But at the same

60 views0 comments

#19 I never thought I'd ever be referred to as an author...

Madhavi Latha Prathigudupu

Sep 5, 2021
2 min

#19 I never thought I'd ever be referred to as an author...

#19 I never thought I'd ever be referred to as an author... Cover pages are very important for any book. However informative/interesting the content is, ONLY cover pages can help to give the best first impression, particularly front page. When the publisher asked me to share a few pics for the front cover, I was in a dilemma. As the name of the book title is 'Swimming Against the Tide' and I am a swimmer myself, I thought my pic while swimming might be a good choice. But I al

3 views0 comments

#18th I never thought I'd ever be referred to as an author...

Madhavi Latha Prathigudupu

Aug 29, 2021
2 min

#18th I never thought I'd ever be referred to as an author...

#18 I never thought I'd ever be referred to as an author... In the next stage, I had to arrange all the required photos for the book. I had only a few photos for the period related to my childhood, schooling, and college times. Right now whenever we want, we can click a pic with our smartphones. In those days this was not the situation. If we wanted to take a photo, we had to go to a photo studio only. And also affordability was also an issue. Hence I wanted to take the suppo

7 views0 comments

17th I never thought I'd ever be referred to as an author...

Madhavi Latha Prathigudupu

Aug 24, 2021
3 min

17th I never thought I'd ever be referred to as an author...

#17 I never thought I'd ever be referred to as an author... Usually, SAGE Publishers don’t publish biographies. But after a review of my unedited draft manuscript, they felt my story was worth telling and considered my proposal positively. That was truly a wonderful moment in my life! For a first time writer like me, getting the acceptance for my very first proposal from an internationally renowned publisher like SAGE was an unbelievable news! Each publisher usually has their

8 views0 comments

16th I never thought I'd ever be referred to as an author...

Madhavi Latha Prathigudupu

Aug 20, 2021
2 min

16th I never thought I'd ever be referred to as an author...

#16th I never thought I'd ever be referred to as an author... My friend Saundarya told me that we need to have a book proposal to approach a publisher. I thought I had sufficient time to go for it and didn’t work on it. I had gone through some templates and realised that preparing the proposal would be a more challenging task than writing the book itself 😃 The book proposal usually consists of whole book synopsis, chapter-wise synopsis, author's bio, etc. With the support o

5 views0 comments

15th I never thought I'd ever be referred to as an author...

Madhavi Latha Prathigudupu

Aug 15, 2021
1 min

15th I never thought I'd ever be referred to as an author...

#15th I never thought I'd ever be referred to as an author... At every stage I faced dilemmas about choosing amongst several options after completing the first draft, dad and sister Mythreyi read it again and provided their feedback chapter wise. I made changes wherever I felt they were required. While writing some of the experiences I had excluded the details which seemed trivial to me as I viewed it from the perspective of someone in the situation and not from oustide of it

3 views0 comments

#14th I never thought I'd ever be referred to as an author...

Madhavi Latha Prathigudupu

Aug 10, 2021
2 min

#14th I never thought I'd ever be referred to as an author...

#14th I never thought I'd ever be referred to as an author... Simultaneously while writing the manuscript, I spoke to some of my writer friends about further steps. They told me to think about publishing the book –either by myself or through a publisher. I got two different types of suggestions. Some friends advised self-publishing as it would be difficult to get acceptance from publishers for a first-time writer like me. They also said it would be time-consuming to work w

5 views0 comments

13th I never thought I'd ever be referred to as an author...

Madhavi Latha Prathigudupu

Aug 8, 2021
2 min

13th I never thought I'd ever be referred to as an author...

For me, sitting for long hours is the biggest challenge brought by severe spine compression. With office work + writing the book + WBFI work + giving talks on various virtual platforms, I often suffer from acute back pain. My family members strongly advised me against writing continuously and encouraged breaks. But when in the mood to write with the train of thoughts flowing naturally, I hate to break it despite aching hands. My friend Raja suggested applications that conv

17 views0 comments

#12th I never thought I'd ever be referred to as an author...

Madhavi Latha Prathigudupu

Aug 6, 2021
2 min

#12th I never thought I'd ever be referred to as an author...

#12th I never thought I'd ever be referred to as an author... Finally I decided to write my story myself. I realized narrating my story to someone else would take just as much time! I started writing my book on 20th May, 2021. In the beginning, I couldn't choose the best way to present my story. I wonder whether to go in chronological order of events or to go theme-wise. After discussing with Dad, my sister and a few well-wishers, I decided to go with a mixture of both and do

7 views0 comments

#11th I never thought I'd ever be referred to as an author...

Madhavi Latha Prathigudupu

Aug 4, 2021
2 min

#11th I never thought I'd ever be referred to as an author...

#11th I never thought I'd ever be referred to as an author... I accepted invitations for virtual talks. One of those invitations was from my well-wishers AVIS Viswanathan and Vaani. They arranged a program along with the Madras Management Association. During my talk there, someone in the audience asked if I was writing my autobiography. When I said that I wasn't owing to my busy schedule, he suggested that I start writing as he believed that it could inspire many. Another pe

8 views0 comments

#10th I never thought I'd ever be referred to as an author...

Madhavi Latha Prathigudupu

Aug 2, 2021
2 min

#10th I never thought I'd ever be referred to as an author...

I thought I'd ever be referred to as an author... By the end of 2019, we started to hear about a new virus that was spreading in China. By February, 2020 news was out that the deadly virus was spreading rapidly and was even found in India. In the second week of March 2020, I was all prepared to go to Mussoorie to deliver a talk at Lal Bahadur Shastry National Academy of Administration LBSNAA to address the IAS officers who were attending their mid career development training

11 views0 comments

#9th I never thought I'd ever be referred to as an author...

Madhavi Latha Prathigudupu

Jul 31, 2021
1 min

#9th I never thought I'd ever be referred to as an author...

I never thought I'd ever be referred to as an author... One day my niece Sahithi Kurapati gave me a pleasant surprise by giving me a unique birthday gift. She was just in her early teen years. She wrote a small story about me and also explained how my swimming inspired her and presented it to me. All our family members appreciated her idea and felt very happy with her nice gesture. From that time, my parents, siblings and Prathigudupu Jayaprakasaraju uncle started insisting I

20 views0 comments