It is in my nature to face challenges head on, says the soft-spoken 30-year-old Ph.D scholar, V.Karthick, all set to submit his thesis this month on the works of poet Po.Ve.Somasundaranar.
Even though his teachers, friends and other faculty at the Thiagarajar College, Teppakulam, always expressed doubt and concern over his mobility within the campus since the Tamil department is situated on the second floor, Karthick from day One exuded an unusual confidence and rejected any help to move around.
Even as a teacher points to the pathetic sight of him going up and down the two flight of stairs, Karthick moves around swiftly with a smiling face. He has his own manner and no matter how hot it is, he uses his palms for walking around jerking the legs forward with the help of his back muscles. And he stands out because his agility and energy are not to be missed.
But it is his determination and dedication to achieve something in life without brooding over his misfortune that wins the hearts of others.
“As a kid I sensed”, he says, “if I do not study well I can’t make it in life.” He is the youngest in a family of six brothers and four sisters. His father who worked as a watchman could not afford to educate the children. The maximum any of them went was class VII. But, says Karthick, my parents and friends always told me that only education would give me a life of dignity.
If it were not for his parents who carried him on their shoulders to Thiagarajar Model School and back everyday and took care of his every need, Karthick would have acquired emotional scars and be lost in the complexity of issues that children with mobility disability face. He was bright and eager to study and so his parents did not mind their struggle.
There were moments, recalls Karthick, when he felt depressed for not being able to fit in with his able-bodied peers particularly during the games period. More than inside the classrooms, it is out there in the playgrounds where you establish friendships, he says. But he soon found a friend in one of his school teachers Mr.Sankar, who not only encouraged him and played indoor games like chess and carom with him but also took care of his school fee.
As the school topper in Tamil, Karthick got a UG seat in Tamil in Thiagarajar College. He underlines with pride that he did not get admission under any special quota but purely on merit.
For the last 12 years, the college has been his second home, where he completed his PG, M.Phil and now Ph.D. Impressed with his academic record and grit, Karthick’s Ph.D guide and Tamil litterateur Professor G.Gnanasambandan and Advocate Jeyaram Kumar have been paying his college fees.
Karthick understands he cannot let down those who love and help him unconditionally. During his college years, he has excelled in writing short stories, poems and articles and won several awards and presented papers at national and state seminars. He has established his name in Tamil typing using the Bamini script and is of great help at various meetings and conferences. During their free time, other students may choose to chat but never Karthick. He will either be spotted in the library reading something, or helping with any kind of work, from admin to academics including preparation of slides to presentation of assignments and taking UG classes.
The college has been my lucky platform to focus on my ideas, says the Best Student Award winner, who also feels happy about the opportunities that have come his way, like meeting celebrities including actor Kamal Haasan and former President Dr.A.P.J Abdul Kalam.
It is Karthick’s optimism and diligence that sails him through. Life has to go on, he says and draws inspiration from the works of Kannadasan, Na.Muthukumar, Mu.Metha and Vairamuthu. Words fail him when he talks about his parents, brothers and friends who are always around him to help him. “It is because of their support that I have come so far and look at myself as a normal person and not as someone with a physical deformity.”
If anything saddens him it is the general facilities which are not disabled-friendly in the city. Government buildings do not have ramps, transport is a problem. Karthick himself had to struggle to get a vehicle from the State Government. Eventually in 2008 he approached the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation in Delhi and got a three-wheeler bike that helped him to surmount so many other odds.
The attitude of the people needs to be sensitised to the needs of people like me, he says, adding, everybody should develop the habit of helping others. For instance, very few people come forward to lend a helping hand to the visually challenged trying to cross the roads, says Karthick who has been a scribe from his school days for the visually challenged students.
He wants to create an environment of being “different” rather than always categorised as “special”. He is doing it wonderfully and that is his success story.
“I am perhaps close to realising my dream of becoming a professor,” he smiles. It is his desire to continue to study and teaching is the profession that will help him to do so, he says, hoping that his Ph.D will earn him a teaching job in his alma mater soon.
( Making a difference is a fortnightly column about ordinary people and events that leave an extraordinary impact on us. E-mail soma.basu@thehindu.co.in to tell her about someone you know who is making a difference)
