There is that glow of achievement on Neelanjan Dasgupta’s face. The 27-year-old was visibly excited to start his job as a content developer with SAP Labs from Wednesday.
Mr. Dasgupta, who has Asperger’s Syndrome, has just completed his training under Prayas, a project of the Autism Society of India and Spastics Society of Karnataka.
“This is my first salaried job,” he said happily, as he participated in a four-day workshop that began here Tuesday, organised by the two organisations in association with The National Trust for the Welfare of Persons with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation and Multiple Disabilities.
Mr. Dasgupta has been hired to “research on topics about technology and create presentations,” something that Kavita Sharma, centre head, Prayas, vouches he can do well. And why not? He studied information technology and computer science in the United States of America where he began attending college but could not complete it.
The three-year computer training that he underwent with Prayas, he said, helped him overcome a major hurdle — picking up social clues. “Earlier I could not trace human faces…they were just a black spot. Now, I have made an animation with Hercules’s face,” he laughed. Mr. Dasgupta has worked as a volunteer teaching children with special needs in Kolkata. In his three years’ experience there, he even qualified as a special educator. “But this is a new feeling… I liked teaching, but don’t know if I will find time to do it now.”
