In 2021, Prachi Pandey lay in a hospital bed after a fifth surgery, with her leg completely bent.
It was then that she made the biggest decision of her life, and as the generic cliche goes, “follow her passion.”
That one decision changed the trajectory of her life. Earlier this month at the 2026 Asian Para Games, Prachi stood on the podium with a bronze medal in para table tennis – among the first Indians to do so in the standing category.
“It was my first time at the Asian Para Games, and the seniors Bhavina and Sonal told me this is the first time we’ve won so many medals,” said Prachi in a conversation with Read at the SAI campus here in Gandhinagar.
“I’m sure all of us will build on this momentum and perform better. I’m sure if we get more quota places, it’ll significantly increase our chances of winning more medals,” she added.
Pranchi was born with spinal bifida, a condition where a baby’s spine and spinal cord fail to close completely during the first month of pregnancy.
She, however, wasn’t diagnosed until she was well into her teenage years.
“I was always active in sports, and so when I turned 14 and started having extreme pain in my thighs and back, we consulted a doctor,” recalled Prachi.
They had reached out to doctors earlier in their village as well, but due to the lack of medical facilities, there were no official tests.
At 14, Prachi underwent her first surgery.
“The doctor told us that if I don’t go under the knife, my lower limbs would be fully paralysed,” she said. “Even if we did, it was possible that some part of my body would be disabled.”
The Pandey family opted for the best option available.
Prachi was fine initially, but as the doctor had predicted, she suffered from sensory loss in her leg, which eventually led to wounds.
The doctors suggested calliper shoes, but those caused ulcers.
“I spent almost a decade of my life dressing the ulcers,” shared Prachi. “There was a time when I would bleed if I took even a single step.”
The disability meant that Prachi had to leave her love for sports behind and double down on academics.
“After the disability, my father and family told me that now that you are disabled, you should put all your focus on academics,” she said. “We were unaware of the concept of para sports back then.”
And that’s what Prachi did. She doubled down on her studies and completed her M.Tech from the Punjab Engineering College in Chandigarh in 2018.
It was during this period that she first heard of para sports, during a train journey. A para athlete travelling for a tournament mistook her for an athlete as well.
“Tum kyu nhi khelti ho? (Why don't you play?),” the athlete asked.
That one conversation opened up a world of possibilities for Prachi. She had been an avid table tennis player during her childhood and para sports meant that she could go back.
But she couldn’t throw everything she had studied so hard for in a jiffy for a far-fetched dream. So Prachi did what a majority of the Indian populace does.
She found a job as a software developer and started playing table tennis side-by-side. She wanted to build a pool of savings before she could take the plunge.
After her fifth and final surgery during the peak of COVID-19 in 2021, she spent five months bedridden. Prachi had enough of being sorry for herself.
She wanted to follow her passion and left the stable job behind to chase her dream of being a para-athlete.
The move paid dividends. Her disability is still increasing, but she is content.
“The doctors had said that spinal bifida has no cure and as I grow older, the disability will increase. It is increasing, but I’m happy that I’m able to play sports,” she said.
“I think if I weren’t playing sports, considering my age, I would be entirely in a wheelchair. But just because of TT and sports, I’m able to do this and I love it,” added Prachi with a grin.
As she video called back home with a medal around her neck from Nagoya, her father stepped away from the frame abruptly.
“My mom told me, “Your father is crying,”” said Prachi with a chuckle. “My dad works with UP Police and I’ve never seen him cry.
“I assume it was because he was very happy,” she added.
Prachi currently doesn’t know why her father broke down but once she travels back home for Diwali, that will be the first conversation the father-daughter duo have.