Disability, Determination & Redefining Failure from Within
At the Impact/Failure Conclave, disability rights activist Malati Krishnamurthy Holla offers a profound counterpoint to the very idea of failure. Diagnosed with polio at a young age and left paralysed, Malati never viewed her life through the lens of limitation. “I don’t think I’m the right person to speak at a failure conclave,” she begins because, despite physical setbacks, she never saw her life as a failure.
Through years of painful surgeries and hospital stays, she clung to hope, believing each procedure would bring her a little closer to mobility. But it wasn’t her body that ultimately carried her forward – it was her mind. Moving to Bangalore, she was confronted by the stark divide between the “abled” and “disabled” worlds, and it was here, guided by her father’s wisdom, that she found her path: acceptance was not the end, but the beginning. Her story is not one of overcoming disability, but of building a life of impact, purpose, and fierce inner strength. Malati’s perspective challenges traditional ideas of success and failure, reminding us that resilience of the mind can be the most radical act of defiance against the odds.
