Physical deformity or infirmity has often been considered a hindrance in the way of great achievement in life. However, as they say, if God closes one door, He invariably opens another one. If one activity of the body is blunted, it is only to sharpen the mind.

With an iron will, we can surmount any difficulty, and there are scores of such examples to prove that these deformities, though torturing, could pose no obstacle. They have proved a boon and not a bane.

Fascinatingly handsome Lord Byron, the centre of all attraction in the higher strata of society, had a clod foot. This ‘limping brat’, as his mother used to call him, was so conscious of his limp that he would be furious if he found anyone staring at him. But notwithstanding his limp, he ran up the ladder of fame by his forceful poetry.

He says: "I woke up one morning and found myself famous." It was his charming descriptions and masterly style of poetry that ushered him into a new region of fame and popularity. In fact, after his ascent to fame, it became the fashion of the day to limp like this young and handsome Lord!

When he limped his way into a hall amid a party, it was "Byron…Byron" everywhere. He had overcome his physical imperfection with his perfect verses.

Milton became blind when barely in his forties. It was a great handicap in his way of writing poetry. He grumbled at this unexpected blow that fate dealt him. But realising the eternal truth that "they also serve who only stand and wait", he, with his unsurpassed volumes of Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained and the rest, overcame his handicap.

However, the greatest and the noblest example is that of Helen Keller. Born a normal child, she was hit by scarlet fever at the tender age of nine and became dumb, deaf and blind, with a vast life before her and a dark world around.

Nevertheless, these handicaps could not impede her way to success. She took her B.A. degree, wrote several books which are relished all over the world. She was a magnet in working for the physically handicapped all over the world. This is an invidious achievement.

Great Dr. Johnson, who gave us the first dictionary, had an ugly veneer over his matchlessly rich and beautiful mind. He was so ugly that, it is said, when he applied for a job as a teacher, he received a stunningly rude reply to the effect that he was so horribly ugly that he would frighten his pupils.

What a heart-rending reply for a young aspirant! It was enough to undermine the confidence and self-respect of the young man forever. But, Dr. Johnson was made of different stuff.

He revealed his beautiful mind before the world through his literary attainments and showed that his ugly exterior could not stand in his way to fame and name.

The man who irritated the cream of his country, Athens, by his glittering intelligence and simple yet fearless talks propounding the bitter truth was an utterly ugly man with a snub nose and rough face. He was Socrates!

The man who 399 years before Christ had declared himself a citizen of the world! Today, we refer to him with reverential love, study his biography and learn his theories, thinking not for a moment of his deformity. Alexander Pope came into this world with physical handicaps. A deformed little hunchback, he was ailing throughout his life, so much so that he could hardly dress himself up without aid. However, God had granted him a sharp intellect.

He was a prodigy. Today, we enjoy his bitter satires, pungent humour and keen intellect. Who cares, today, that this man who coined lines like "Hope springs eternal in the human breast," "To err is human, to forgive divine," was an ugly little hunchback!

Steinmetz was ugly. He had a deformed leg and also a hunch on his back. Terribly ugly was he! It was Charles Protens Steinmetz! The wonder man in the world of electricity, who gave us lighting arrestors and discovered the law of hysteresis.