Space the final frontier for wheelchairbound Bengal teenager
wants to make a big name for himself in science,” beams Sujata Dey while talking about her son Tuhin, who is affected by arthrogryposis multiplex congenita (AMC), a disorder that develops during pregnancy and reduces the mobility of joints of the baby’s hands and legs.
The 17-year-old wheelchair-bound boy from West Midnapore district of West Bengal holds a pen in his mouth to write and operates gadgets with his chin. He is in Kota for engineering entrance coaching and dreams of getting into an IIT to become a cosmologist like the famed theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking who is affected by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
“Since his birth in 1999, Tuhin has undergone more than 20 surgeries. But that did not deter this boy from studies,” Sujata says.
Despite the 90% handicap, which doctors have said is not curable, Tuhin wrote his Class 10 exams this year without the help of a writer or using extra time given to students with disabilities. Now he is waiting for the results.
A student of Kendriya Vidyalaya at Iit-kharagpur, Tuhin got the National Child Award for Exceptional Achievement in 2012 and Best Creative Child Award with Disabilities in 2013 from President Pranab Mukherjee.
Tuhin says he is interested in cosmology and computer science, and idolises Hawking. “I want to get into IIT and become like him one day,” he said.
Doctors say Tuhin’s disorder is different from Stephen Hawking, but what the two have in common is that the brain doesn’t get affected. “You need brain, not brawn, to get ahead in life. This congenital disease does not affect intelligence and as long as he can use a wheelchair to move, he will remain highly-functional,” says Dr Yash Gulati, senior consultant orthopaedic surgeon, Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals