Joy of Giving

Amrit Centre for Special Needs celebrated the ‘Joy of Giving’ with a special gift to a special student

V.G. Jagadeesh, an old student of Amrit Centre for Special Needs. Photo: M. Periasamy

It was a special day for the students of Amrit.

V.G. Jagadeesh has over 800 friends on Facebook. He connects with at least 200 of them every day and spends most of his time on Wikipedia and YouTube. A tetraplegic, he does all this lying on his back. But thanks to Amrit Centre for Special Needs, he can now work in a sitting position. As part of the ‘Joy of Giving Week’ celebrations at Amrit, Jagadeesh was given a wheel-chair. Specially designed for him by Colonel Radhakrishnan and Colonel Venkatesh of Worth Trust, Vellore, the wheel-chair was sponsored by Dr. Madhavi Gopinath.

Twenty-one-year-old Jagadeesh is an old student of Amrit. He is so full of energy. “I like learning about new things,” he smiles. Jagadeesh is up-to-date with current affairs and is closely following the politics of our country. “I am angry,” he says, “With all the corruption.” Jagadeesh feels that only words have the power to affect a change, which is why he wants to become a writer.

A big fan of poet Vairamuthu and writer Kalki, Jagadeesh is working on a novel in Tamil. Titled

Minnal Dhevadhai , it has a female protagonist. “She is bold and outspoken,” says Jagadeesh. “The novel unfolds in a college. It speaks of how the small mistakes we commit can sometimes have grave consequences. It imparts the message that youngsters should be responsible.” he adds.

Jagadeesh also helps friends, some of them much older than him, do college projects. And if any of his friends have doubts in their lessons, he is the first person they approach. He sometimes takes classes for them. “I use the Internet as reference,” he says. “I clarify doubts over phone or online chat. But I’m strict when it comes to classes.” A regular blogger, Jagadeesh says he is planning to learn French. “This is because I have friends worldwide.”

Jagadeesh also writes poetry. He recited one of his poems for us at the event. “

Mounam kaadhalargalin thaimozhi; thanimayil, mounam en kadhali ”. It roughly translates as: ‘Silence is the language of lovers; when I’m lonely, silence is my love’.