He is just ten but is vociferous in posing piercing queries. “Chennai is such a big city. Why don’t the transit buses here at the airport have ramps or some facility for us to get on them? Other places do,” he complained.
Hridayeshwar Singh Bhati, who hails from Rajasthan, suffers from Duchenne muscular dystrophy that stops the brain from sending signals to the muscles. The lower part of his body, said his father, Sarowar Singh Bhati, is completely paralysed and his lungs are affected. “Doctors have told us children like him survive till the age of 17. He will give a lot to the world before that,” he added.
Hridayeshwar, who was awarded the CavinKare Ability Special Recognition Award 2013 here on Saturday, holds the patent for designing ‘circular chess’ — a variant of the game that can accommodate more than two players. “The idea struck him when his friends came home while he and I were playing a game of chess and they insisted on joining. The game he has designed divides the board into several concentric circles and can let at least six players play. However, the rules, moves and pieces are the same as those in traditional chess,” says the father.
The young student is now working on a game of chess that can be played by sixty players simultaneously, and also on an economical transport vehicle.
“His bones are getting weaker by the day but he refuses to get bogged down. He is fascinated with science and looks for solutions to everyday problems,” his father said.
CavinKare Ability Awards were instituted in 2003 to honour achievers with disabilities who break barriers in pursuit of their dreams. The other awardees at the event included Ranjan Kumar Biswal, who founded the Milton charitable Foundation to improve lives of people with visual impairment, Sayomdeb Mukherjee, who hosts a radio show in Kolkata, Deepa Malik, an Arjuna awardee in swimming and Samuel Ashish Marcus, a music composer.
The awards were presented by Sanjeev Kotnala, vice-president, Dainik Bhaskar Group, G. Dhananjayan, chief, South Business – studios, Disney UTV, film maker Radha Mohan, Mariazeena Johnson, director, Sathyabama University, Gayathri Sriram, managing director, UCal Auto and Blaaze, rap artist.
