The beige curvature of the hearing aid clutching his earlobe bears a faint blue seal that states that the hearing aid has been given by the Tamil Nadu government free of cost. His eyes keenly read the lips to grasp what is being said. D.Mariappan, of Bedarahalli Government High School, has scored 375 out of 400 marks. His 85 per cent hearing impairment and poverty pale in front of his scores - a centum in Math, 90 in Tamil, 95 in social science, and 90 in science.
But Mariappan has one grouse – that he could not write all five papers. His teachers made him avail the G.O. that allows students with disability to skip a language paper. Mariappan had refused fearing his total score would fall on a par with the average score, until his teachers convinced him. “He was complaining about it till this morning,” laughs Narayanan, his uncle, who gave the written consent to the school. Five years ago, the school suggested the option of a special school for him. But, the boy, who had fared well in the government primary school in Bedarahalli up to class 5, was determined to continue there. So, the teachers learned to teach using signs and paid him special attention.
The weekend special coaching was dedicated to one subject every week. A significant portion was revisited for Mariappan.
“He would first ask his friends for help with a math problem, and only then would he come to me,” says Poovathi, his mathematics teacher.
The boy’s maternal uncle Narayanan and his wife Poornima have been a great source of support. “Mariappan and his two siblings grew up in our house,” says Narayanan, a mechanic, who has three children of his own. Mariappan still lives with his uncle. His diploma-holding elder brother, who is employed in shifts in Hosur. and mother live in a rented house nearby. The boy’s father, an alcoholic, died last year.
Even as Mariappan was being celebrated by local media at the Collectorate here, his mother Parvathi was toiling away at some construction site in Dharmapuri and was yet to know of her son’s feat. “She left home in the morning. When she returns home after 7 pm, we’ll tell her,” says Narayanan. “He shares his dreams with me. He wants to become a doctor and treat his own disability first,” says Poornima.
