Hello friends,
Please find below an article appeared in 'The Free Press Journal' on 18th
August 2006.
Shining
Bright
Punit Karnik
What a blind person needs is not a teacher but another self, quotes Helen
Keller. Nikita Vaid, 21, did just that. Born blind, Nikita, a Mulund
resident overcame her disability since childhood and today she stands tall
with a degree of Bachelors in Management Studies (BMS) from Mumbai
University. What special about the feat is that, Nikita is the first of her
kind to be a BMS graduate, with a whopping score of 82 %. She is currently
pursuing a diploma in Human Resource management (HRM) from Welingkars.
Nikita did her schooling like any other normal kid from an mainstream school
and stood second with 79% in the merit list for the disabled. . At the HSC
level, she secured first meritorious position in the Arts faculty scoring
77%.
Life was never a bed of roses for Nikita. She had to overcome several
bureaucratic glitches during her graduation days.. Mumbai University had
refrained her from appearing for the entrance exam, which is a prerequisite
for getting admitted into BMS. The Dean showed apprehension with my case
for he insisted that there would be many project work which would be
difficult for me to handle , says a now confident and proud Nikita. There
were no concessions given for questions based on Visual Reasoning during the
entrance exam but Nikita cleared he test with a decent score and approached
the Mulund College of Commerce (MCC) for further admission.
Again, the management was disinterested in allowing her to seek admission
but, the individual that Nikita is, she argued her case with sheer
determination. She not only proved mettle by topping the BMS stream but was
also in the top three rankings of her class throughout the entire course.
She has also been Ms. MCC and the Best Student of her college.
The corporate world has always enchanted me. So I am pursuing MBA in the
future. But I am skeptical for appearing for CAT as it has questions based
on visual reasoning and if I get them wrong, there are negative markings.
And there is no chance of getting any consideration from the University.
Hence, I am opting for CET and hope that the respective colleges would be
co-operative. It is a sad picture that students like us do not get any
support from the planners of the education system who are static and not
empathetic
However, she was lucky enough to have tremendous support in all forms
throughout her academic span. From her school teachers and friends to the
teachers in National Association for the Blind, India (NAR) who taught her
Braille at an early stage. She is grateful to NAB who provided her with the
Braille and audio literature.
Nikita simply is a multifaceted persona. Balancing her studies, she keeps a
keen interest in music. She has done her M.A. in Indian classical music from
Chandigarh University and is a Visharad. Currently, she has a five years
contract with All India Radio, Mumbai.
At the same time, she is also tech-savy. She learnt computers five years
back and is now a master at it with the help of software called Job
Accesible with Speech (JAWS). She is also proficient at attending smses and
replying to them apart from attending calls. Thanks to software called
Talx that speaks out the sms and other information in the mobile, she is
fond of her new acquisition. She is also fond of travelling and has enjoyed
her field trips to Goa and Hyderabad with her college friends and to U.S>
and Canada with her family.
Her motto in life is Be positive, just like her blood group. Nikita
intends to fight for the rights of visually impaired individuals especially
girls in the future. There are some girls who are not as exposed to the
outside world as I am, but they might show an inclination. However, the
inert education system might not be co-operative to them and therefore, they
might give the hope of higher education. Such individuals should fight till
the end without giving up. Nikita has already started her mission by
setting an example for others to follow suit.
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