Dr. Anita Sharma
The Girl on Four Wheels
At six months old, my life changed—before I even understood what life was.
A wrongly administered vaccine led to polio.
My lower body was paralyzed.
And from that moment on, the world had a script ready for me:
Be careful.
Don’t try too much.
What if something goes wrong?
For a long time, I believed that caution was the only way to survive.
But somewhere deep within me, another voice kept asking—
“What if it goes right?”
Growing up, I realized something most people don’t.
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My disability was not the real limitation.
The world around me was.
Because when I moved through life on my own terms, there was no difference.
The difference only appeared when systems, spaces, and mindsets were not built for me.
My parents made a choice that shaped everything.
They didn’t lower expectations for me.
They raised me to rise above them.
Education became my foundation- an MBA, a PhD from IIM Indore, and a decision to step out of my comfort zone at 30 and build a life independently.
It wasn’t easy. But independence never is.
There came a moment when I decided to confront fear, not avoid it. I stood at the edge of an aircraft 15,000 feet above the ground.
No control. No certainty. Just a decision.
And I jumped.
In that moment, I wasn’t thinking about what I lacked.
I was experiencing what I had.
I may not have legs. But I have wings.
That free fall taught me something profound— to stop worrying about the future and start living in the present. But the most transformative moment of my life didn’t happen in the sky. It happened on the road. The day I drove a car independently for the first time, something shifted within me.
No waiting. No asking. No depending. Just me, making my own choices. And I realized:
Freedom is not about movement.
It is about control over your life.
That moment became my mission. Because I knew I wasn’t alone.
There were so many people like me capable, determined, ready but held back by a system that never expected them to move.
So, I built what I was once looking for.
Drive On My Own (DOMO).
Not just a driving school,
but a platform for independence.
At DOMO, I don’t just teach people how to drive.
I watch them transform.
I see fear turn into confidence.
I see hesitation turn into action.
I see dependence turn into independence.
I see someone who once waited for help…
start making their own decisions.
And there is nothing more powerful than that.
Today, my work is not just about driving.
It is about changing mindsets.
It is about building systems that include, not exclude.
It is about reminding people that ability was never the problem opportunity was.
Because this was never just about me.
It is about every person who has ever been told
“you can’t.”
And helping them say “Watch me.”
Atul Kaushal
Dreamer, Survivor, Lifelong Learner
The story of the Drive On My Own (DOMO) Foundation is inseparable from a single afternoon in August 1997. One month after graduating
with honours in Mechanical Engineering, a road accident resulted in a spinal
cord injury that changed my physical path forever. In that moment, the goals I
had set- including my dream of pursuing an MBA- were placed on an indefinite hold.
However, resilience is not about bouncing back to where you were; it is about moving forward with a deeper understanding of purpose. I chose to view my circumstances through the lens of empathy rather than anger, a mindset that became the foundation of my professional life.
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From Public Service to Global Reinvention
For 23 years, I served in the Punjab Water Resources
Department, eventually rising to the position of Superintending Engineer. My tenure was defined by the belief that leadership is a quiet act of service.
During periods of physical hardship, such as being bedridden with health
complications, I taught myself AutoCAD to ensure my team’s design projects remained on schedule. I realized then that while my physical presence was in a wheelchair, my strategic impact was limitless. In 2024, at the age of 49, I decided to take up the threads of the goal I had set decades earlier. I moved to Canada to pursue my MBA at the UBC Sauder School of Business. This journey was not just an academic pursuit but a testament to the fact that, as long as we are alive, improvement is always possible.
The Vision for DOMO
I co-founded the Drive On My Own Foundation to bridge the gap between human potential and systemic barriers. My lived experience has taught me that a person’s value should be judged by their ability to “swim”, their unique skills and contributions, rather than their inability to “fly” in traditional ways. At DOMO, we are committed to empowering through mobility.
I believe in a world where every person, regardless of physical challenge, has the tools to drive their own destiny. My journey has been one of transforming adversity into strength, and through DOMO, I hope to enable others to find that same path.