Bright minds
intelligent. We intend to keep telling such children that they possess a unique gift that can help overcome the many disadvantages they are born with,” says Asthana.
But the difficulties these children face are daunting. Take for example Varsha Kumari, 13, whose IQ score is above 145, which like Amisha, puts her in the category of a genius. Varsha, who like most of these children goes to a government school, often stands first in her class and wants to become a scientist.
Recently, her dream was almost shattered. She decided to give up her studies after her mother, a daily labourer, sustained injuries at a construction site. Her father had quit his job. So out of sheer desperation, the 13-year-old decided to work as a baby sitter. “We were going hungry, there was no money to ensure two meals a day. I thought I should work and help my family,” says Varsha, her eyes welling up.
Thankfully, the mentor assigned to her as part of Mensa’s Dhruva programme informed Mensa India Delhi. “We helped her mother find a job and she changed her mind,” says Asthana, who maintains a comprehensive file on every selected child. “We gave her an ex-gratia payment so that she could help her family tide over the hard times and counselled her father to rejoin work.”
During the Mensa tests, Asthana encountered some touching moments. “One child, while filling his form, asked, ‘what address should I write, sir. I live on the street’. “We had to often ask some children to move to the front as their eyesight was too weak to see the board from the back and no one had tested them for glasses,” says Asthana. “We will arrange eye test for all children now. We are arranging group health insurance for these scholars who are eligible to join Mensa as members.”
While these selected children come from various caste and communities, poverty is their common identity. What they also share is their determination to change the course of their destiny. “I want to become a scientist,” says a shy Divakar Shukla, who always tops the class in mathematics and loves reading what he calls ‘scary stories’.
“But I am not scared of disadvantages I am facing, I shall invent a solution for them,” say Shukla, his eyes brimming with confidence. AMISHA PASWAN, IQ score above 145
I want to become a doctor and cure poor people... My mother has been in the hospital for the past three days, so I have to ensure that they (mother and siblings) eat on time. I want to become a scientist. I am not scared of disadvantages I am facing, I shall invent a solution for them.
DIVAKAR SHUKLA, loves scary stories