S.P. Muraleedharan was born in Thirunalloor, Alleppey distt., Kerala to
M.G.Prabhakaran, tailor and Sarojini, housewife. His primary schooling was at
Thirunalloor Govt. High School and attended high school at Kulashekharamangalam,
Vaikom. His pre-degree course was at NSS College, Cherthala. During his school
days, his hobby was reading newspapers especially sports news. He always dreamt
that one day his news and photo as a sportstar will appear in the newspaper. The
dream of achieving something big in sports always remained in his heart. At the age of
21yrs, he came to Mumbai in search of job to financially help his poor family. His
lack of good education and poor language skills was a huge barrier for him. After
huge struggle, finally he managed to get job as a swimming pool cleaner in Juhu
Gymkhana Luxury club in Mumbai. With his huge hardwork & determination he
learnt professional swimming techniques there and eventually became swimming
coach of Bollywood celebrities and star kids. His long distance swimming started
from The Vembanad backwaters in Kerala in 2001. Over these years, he has achieved
many milestones in this field by overcoming many hurdles, roadblocks and hardships.
He is an inspiration to those who dare to dream. He has authored two books about his
life and swimming published by leading publisher DC Books. He has given swimming
training to more than 3000 people including school students, police personnels,
models, air hostesses, celebrities and prominent personalities from various sector. He
is also giving motivational speech in school and college to motivate students to chase
their dream. Now his ambition is to start a Swimming Academy in his village,
Cherthala, Alleppey Distt, to give swimming lessons to children for self-safety,
helping others and competitive level. I request you to give him all possible help and
encouragement to achieve his goal. I wish him all the best for his future endeavours.
By U.N. Gopi Nair, Managing Director, Jwala Publications Private Limited, Mumbai, India
By U.N. Gopi Nair, Managing Director, Jwala Publications Private Limited, Mumbai, India