Students defy disability to show their mettle

LUCKNOW: Jyoti Mishra scored highest marks among visually impaired students pursuing undergraduate courses. She would be conferred with Dr Shakuntala Misra Memorial Gold Medal at the fourth convocation at the Dr Shakuntala Misra National Rehabilitation University (DSMNRU) to be held on Saturday.

“I scored 71.36%. Taking the examination with the help of a writer is not easy as one has to dictate answers at a certain speed which is comfortable for the writer,” said Jyoti who thanked the university for allowing her to take the exam with a writer. Her father is a farmer and mother a homemaker.

The university has many such achievers who defied disability and came out with flying colours. Orthopaedically challenged Sandeep Kumar, 24, has hurriedly made his way back to Lucknow after getting his leave sanctioned by his supervisors in Madurai, where he is currently training to be a teacher at the Kendriya Vidyalaya.

He couldn’t miss the fourth convocation at DSMNRU, where he would be conferred with the Chief Minister’s Gold Medal for securing the top spot in Masters in Fine Arts, securing 77.65%.

“It’s a completely different feeling, I couldn’t miss this,” said Sandeep, whose feet was affected with polio. He even had to work to support his education. Hailing from a rural area in UP, he got his undergraduate degree from the Lucknow College of Arts and Crafts before joining DSMNRU for his PG degree.

Smriti Pandey, 22, a slow learner, will bag the Rohit Mittal Memorial Gold Medal for her meritorious performance in B.Ed (MR) with a percentage of 71.75%.

Thanking her parents and sisters, Smriti said her success was unimaginable without her family. Finishing her education, Smriti hopes to open an NGO to cater and aid slow learners and other differently-abled children so that they get the right education without facing struggle that she had to face to achieve her education.

Anju Kumari, a physically challenged student of MA (Hindi), will get Amit Mittal Memorial Gold Medal for scoring of 79.6%. After an unfortunate accident at the age of 5, she was left with an impaired right hand. She had to learn to write with her left hand all over again.