Sakshi Education
Sai Prasad Vishwanathan, A physically challenged C.B.I.T student who conquered all the challenges in his way in receiving a research scholarship at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA; from being the first disabled Indian to skydive to being one of the youngest and least experienced to be admitted into the prestigious Indian School of Business, Hyderabad shared a lot with us… How did you make the impossible possible? Is it due to your determination, or it is because of god’s grace?
To be very honest, I have been fortunate enough to be blessed with a lovely family and great friends all life. Whatever I have achieved till date is only because of the belief of my parents in me, the infinite support of my friends, the encouragement given at C.B.I.T. and God’s grace. With such belief, support and encouragement by my side, not only me, but anyone like me can also become determined and achieve whatever he/she wants to.
Tell us about your parents. I think, without their care and support you may not have achieved this.
My father is a employee with Indian Railways. He has been working for railways relentlessly since 34 years. My mother is a home maker. Both of them moved to Andhra Pradesh in 1984 after I was born.I would say that one must be blessed to have such an open minded, broad and encouraging friends. We are not a family with great financial riches. Infact, I would categorize us in a lower middle class family which did not even own a house 7 years back.
And yet, both my mom and dad taught me to dream big and dream shamelessly. They taught me to work hard. Taught me to never give up. And most importantly taught me to never worry about what others say or feel about me as I pursue my dreams.
They have been my first teachers and if not for them, I cannot even imagine becoming whatever I am today.My only request to every parent of a disabled or normal child is to ask them believe in your own child’s dreams and support & encourage it no matter what the society around you says ! That is what my parents did. And that is what gave me confidence, courage, strength and responsibility !
How were your school days?
School days were difficult for me. I had to change as many as 6 schools in 10 years of my school life. The change in schools happened primarily because schools refused to accept me and my disability halfway through the year. They thought that my disability would distract remaining students. In the few schools where I got accepted, I was made to sit in a separate bench away from remaining students.Seeing these struggles, My relations in tamil nadu never thought I would finish 10th. But my parents kept on trying to ensure I felt included and part of every school. And I began to learn and understand that constant change, fights for what is right is something I should expect in life.My mom used to spend hours and hours together with me after a day in school. She would teach, play and train me on all the subjects that school taught me that day all over again. And whichever school/class I was part of, I ended up topping it. The credit for which should go only and only to my Mom & Dad.Finally, after quite a lot of struggle, fights and changes, I passed out in S.S.C with 80.33 % and a 100 % in maths.
What about College life in India?
After a great struggle in school and intermediate life, I made what I think today is the greatest decision of my life. It was to join C.B.I.T. in the electrical and electronics engineering department.
With 942 rank, I went into the college and department in the merit category. I had refused admissions into I.I.Ts for this.And to my greatest surprise and thrill, I found my college to be extremely sensitive and accommodative to all my needs. They planned and helped me out with buying a scooty for myself. The college gave me permission to park my scooty anywhere and close to any department or lab I want in campus. They ensured that all the attenders were trained to be sensitive to my needs.And adding to all this, I found angel like friends all around. The atmosphere in C.B.I.T was truly majestic. And it created a passion in me to study, study hard, compete and top.
I was encouraged to present my technical papers even in the first year.I submitted as many as 6 technical papers in college and won first prizes in all of them. Was also involved in organizing our national level tech fest “Electret” and cultural fest “sruthi”. The freedom given to me to organize these inspite of my disability groomed the leadership skills in me and gave me infinite confidence. I was also very explicity trained in soft skills and people skills by the placement committee. It gave me an opportunity to build a belief in myself and build dreams for myself.And having consistently topped my class and with a percentage of 89.94 %, I was placed in as many as 3 companies even before I stepped into final year. CTS, Infosys and TIME gave me placement offers.
And yet my friends encouraged me to not get carried away with those offers and plan for higher studies.Me and my friends did a brilliant and an original engineering project in our final year which was graded as “the best and excellent project for 2006”.
I took up GRE and scored 1470/1600. In toefl I managed 110/120. I was all set to go into U.S. for my M.S. program. But finances were a constraint then.
All in all, life in CBIT was like living in heaven and till this date I visit my college atleast once every month to get inspired !
Whatever I am and will be, this college will remain one of the biggest reasons for it ! :)
What are the hurdles and problems you faced? How did you overcome them?
Broadly classifying, I had four major hurdles / challenges in my life.
- Physical
- Mental
- Financial
- Emotional
The infrastructure in our country meant that it became difficult for me to travel long distances or get onto top floors in buildings. It was impossible for me to survive on my own.
But parents kept on fighting to build the confidence in me. The poor background I came from added difficulty to my life. My dad would drop me in school daily on a cycle. My mom would then come back and pick me up using a rickshaw.
I learnt patience and understanding of the situations experiencing the same. I understood that there is no point in complaining about the system or feeling bad about myself. I decided that the only option available to me was to study well and change the entire system by studying well and being the best in every field I get into. I decided to do that.
Scored a 95.00 % in intermediate, was prathiba scholarship awardee from the then C.M. of A.P. and ended engineering with 89.94 and one of the top 5 in the class. Went into infosys and was the best trainee there with a 5.0/5.0 GPA. And ended up as a research scholar at the university of Wisconsin, Madison after every university I applied to in the U.S. gave me an admission
From being thrown out of schools I ended up being accepted at every school in the space of 15 years. What kept me going was the patience, belief and support. I knew that in education lies a change in my life ! I wanted to study and wanted to study madly ! I worked hard and with the help of my parents, friends and teachers at C.B.I.T passionately learnt every skill possible.
Mental & Emotional :
Parents and lovely friends apart, There were many times I felt down and discouraged by people around me. The sympathy shown to me was all the more frustrating ! But then, I had made a decision to not react to anything and focus only on my education. My life had positives and negatives. And I had decided that I would use the positives, work hard and study well to overcome all the negatives. I had decided to act on the positives of my life rather than react for the negatives of it. And it is this decision and relentless fight that had helped me become whatever little I am today.
A person must first foolishly believe in himself/herself and then go out and passionately fight for what they think is right for their life ! Then everything else will take care of itself. The society or people around us may initially call us adamant or arrogant for being so, but then in the end truth, belief and passion will prevail.
Financial :
My dad’s monthly income back in 2000 was less than 10k. So corporate colleges or payment seats during engineering were totally inaccessible for me. And adding to this, it was my principle not to accept any money that came under the name of disability category. I returned the national scholarship given by the government of India that categorized my performance of 95 % in inter and 942nd rank in eamcet under disability quota. The only thing i had for myself at our house in engineering was a computer and study table. And I only believed that if I study hard and believe in the goodness of what I am trying to do, rest all will take care of itself. It was very tough. But out of hardwork came good times. I finished my entire education in prathiba scholarship and research scholarship. Worked hard with infosys for an year and saved money for flight tickets and laptop in the U.S.A.At different instances in life, I made money out of winning technical festivals, project competitions and organizing knowledge help sessions for people.
I still am struggling for money. I.S.B. is charging me 20 lakhs for tuition fees. And the only house we have built after 8 years of hardwork is now gone again into the loan. But yet again, I believe that I will study hard, work well and get through all this again.
In my view, everyone in the world has financial difficulties no matter what. The only thing that is needed to overcome it is to have one right dream and a very strong and passionate belief in that dream. Everything else will come from that belief and hardwork.
Do you think that our society should be more sensitive towards the needs of physically challenged people?
I feel that, at our place, Many a times people like me may be rejected not only on the rights we deserve side of it but also as a very individual with feelings.. We may be hurt, looked down upon just because we are different on the negative side.. We may be laughed at when we take up a challenge to pursue big dreams.. We may be finding difficulties in every walk and every stage of life..
But then more than anything else i also feel that every individual has 3 sides to him/her..
1) The person one thinks one is
2) The person others think one is and
3) The person one really is..
And yes, without any doubt we may be lagging and looked down negatively from the perception of others.. but in no way can that and should that affect the real persons in us.. We are for us and really in every true sense unique.. In every sense and every walk of life, we have an opportunity to lay a path and lead the way for others like us to follow.. Infinite difficulties may lie ahead in front of us.. But then they are infinite opportunities for us to solve and show the people who looked down on us we are special.. The crisis thrown at us are a stage for us to perform and tell others how we are better than them if not equal..
Whether it be Education/Employment/Even a simple matter of getting access to something we really and absolutely deserve.. there will be difficulties/injustice everywhere.. but then after 24 years of my existence as a disabled person i feel there is absolutely no point in shouting at the injustice and asking for equal rights..
There is absolutely no point in shouting at injustice.. Because we are shouting at the people who are normal and against the people who are normal and asking the people who are normal for equal rights.. Will this solve the problem ? Even if does, will it solve all problems of everyone permanently ? I do not feel so.. So rather than blaming people around me for showing sympathy or giving negative vibes, I would blame people like me for reacting to that sympathy and making an issue out of it. And as shocking as it may sound, in my opinion, the first thing we can do is to accept that we are well and truly inferior to them.. To accept not to them but to ourselves.. We need to understand and digest that we are dependent on the normal individuals or society.. Else we will need to lead a frustrated life all through.. We need to keep cribbing and fighting a loosing battle that we are equal to other people in the society..
How do we show the some normal people, who are biased against us, that the real person in us is special and better than them if not equal ?
Well a simple and a straight forward answer to that question would be as long as there is no internal change in the feelings of the so called normal people.. As long as their inner conscience really does not tell them every disabled person is differently abled.. And it is obvious that this is not going to happen overnight.. For nowhere in the history of humankind has change in the attitude of people taken overnight..
And what can cause that internal change ? Who will bring about it ? Shouting in blogs or forming communities or posting the injustice in human rights group will solve that particular problem at that instant.. Friends, we are only finding solutions to problems faced by people like us.. But then we have eliminate the problem itself and that too from its very roots.. We need to build a generation of people and people to come who will not pose the same problems to our children( I mean, younger ones like us) and they are left to fight for rights like us..
How can we bring about attitudinal changes in a person about us when we are the last and the least thing in their minds..?
I feel it is possible only by self example and through mutual help..We as an individual have to take up the problems ahead of us as a God sent gift and opportunity to excel and bring about a thought to change in others..We need to accept and face every opposition with a smile for it is nothing but something expected.. We need to build a respect for ourselves in the community of normals.. And for that respect to be built, our actions should be the cause.. Our actions, attitude and achievements by themselves should speak of how we are equal rather than our words questioning how we are not equal..
For instance, if a person is in an educational field.. let him/her put in the best effort in that.. That is self-example and now through mutual help we need to highlight that achievement.. And by mutual help i mean not only help from people like us but also through true friends who understand the real us..
The highlight and achievement of each individual may be highlighted in the local area/city/state through media or word of mouth.. And in turn each individual who has gained the respect must be made to lay the path for others like him to follow and earn respect.. Communities and forums online / committees will not solve this 100 % problem effectively.. TV will also not solve the problem as no one has enough patience and time to look at such programs and listen to their stories..
So how can we go about solving this problem of highlighing our achievements ?
Again the only solution is not to look at people above us, but to people below us.. Towards people who are in a much worse position than us..
We need to find out people within our society who are in much more difficulties than us and then highlight our individual's achievement to him/her.. By highlighting the achievements, we must not only provide that individual with publicity but we must also entrust him with the responsibility of taking care of the person who is in much more distress than him.. We must encourage him/her to provide his/her own example to that person and inspire him to greater heights.. In that way, we will earn respect and begin to change attitudes..
We need to form small groups of friends in each colonies and organize activities for younger, poorer children.. As today's children are tommorrow's citizens, we need to make them love us.. Unlike their parents who hush them up when out of enthusiasm they question us why are we walking or looking differently, we need to teach through sharing love that we are normal people.. The well to do among people like us can adopt small kids and show openly to the society what we are capable of..
Apart from educational field, even in the work field we can show how different we are.. Without any doubt friends, we are gifted wth an amazing concentration.. And we only need to have a look at our fellow people, who gaze at us pathetically, for inspiration to put in that extra effort.. Their indifferent attitude again must be treated by us with a smile and should fill us with inspiration to work even more harder to eventually break that pathetic look and make that a look of pride and honour..
Emotionally too, lets realize that no one in the world can understand the need to respect and love a fellow being better than us.. No one can feel the need for respecting and loving a person and be loved more than us.. So, lets not fill our good qualities with hatred for the injustice meted out at us.. Let's look at it as an opportunity.. let's look at it as an inspiration.. let's look at it to be an opportunity to be an individual who has led his fellow beings to the path of dignity..
To summarize, let every disabled person realize that we are born to be leaders for our future generation.. Every look faced by us, every word heard by us, every attitude faced by us in this modern era is a challenge for us.. And we need to change it for the better.. Change it through self example and mutual help..
I am sincerely thankful if you have read this entire answer. Sorry if i bored you sir..
In the face of harsh weather conditions and unfavorable financial situation … why did you take the risk of going to America?
Well first and fundamentally, ,my parents had inculcated in me strong love for education and a belief in myself. And adding to that the only goal I had was to ensure that my life and the way I lived it in itself becomes a message for people around me. This love and passion for education along with the support of my friends and encouragement of my parents I had, gave me infinite courage. And what people around me saw as risk, I saw it as a fight for my love and dream.
I thought that when my parents could bring a disabled child like me with all love and care, taking all risks, fighting all stigma and society for 23 years, when they could face and bring me up against physical, mental, emotional and financial troubles – why should I give up ? Why should I not go ahead and do the same for my dreams and love ? Such role model parents and thoughts and the mad love I had for education taught me to dream of the impossible. It made me feel a desire for my tomorrow. Made me feel hope for my tomorrow. Taught me to see the best in everything and be the best in everything. Made me wake up at 3 in the morning and sleep at 11 in the night every day. Made me turn my world upside down.
And with such a mad love for education and belief in my talents, I started feeling that anything is possible. The passion I had and dream I had to attain made me fight to the harshest of weather conditions and sit like a beggar in the middle of a street for education loans. I started setting goals, made promises and started working. Infact, I’d say i started living. I wanted to break all barriers - physical, mental, financial and emotional - which came in the way of my love and which people have forced on me. I have broken them so far. And i will continue to break them because somewhere down the line through my parents and myself i realized that true joy in life lies in going after after what you love the most and fight for all the dreams you have. And go after them and fight, no matter who says what !
Elaborate us your experiences in America. How was campus life there?
As I sit back and look at the past now, I must write of a one particular feeling that stands out. The feeling of the surprise and shock that people felt, the discouragement I faced, the fear that was put in and the sympathy I faced, when I first announced to people around me that, in spite of my disability, I will go to the U.S. all alone and study there for my M.S. program.
Having lived as someone who has metallic crutches as an extension to my body and having born into a typical lower middle-class Indian family, my dream of going to the U.S. all alone and studying there was received with a lot of fear by my loved ones and cynicism by the ones who heard it.
Many myths about the U.S.A and the kind of life there were thrown at me. I was made to feel scared, terrified and petrified.
Yet I went. Contrary to common misconceptions, I witnessed the U.S.A to be an extremely sensitive and very accommodative place, especially to the needs of the physically-challenged.
Whether it be a university or a work place, whether it be a restaurant or a sports ground, whether it be in a bus or train, a physically-challenged person is always provided the best of infrastructural facilities that one can only imagine in our country.
In fact, so accommodative are the facilities and so sensitive are people about the needs of the physically-challenged, that even a person like me who hadn't walked on my own for the first 20 years of my life here in India survived there for one-and-half years.
In the harshest of weather conditions, in a place where it snows for seven months of the year and in a place where I was told I can never live all alone, I lived and made a life for myself.
And I made a life for myself not out of sympathy, but made a life for myself out of sensitivity, out of support only for talent and real merit, out of living in top-class infrastructural facilities, out of accommodative and special facilities for the disabled and out of constant awareness of the rights that I possess in that country.
For all the physically disabled people who back their talent and are passionately dreaming of making it to the U.S.A someday, these videos will give an insight into life there - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFA2zUu1rp0 and https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEXQZycFf0I
What are your future plans?
Firstly, I dream of doing well in I.S.B. I want to become the best student I.S.B. has ever seen ! And once I do that, I want to influence people and inspire them using my own example to study in places like it ! I want to help people and make them feel that anything is possible if only they believe.
That apart, working in an influential position in the I.T. industry and working on managing software technologies that would make the life of people better is also one of my dreams. Training children and students in English, computers is also one of my passions.All in all, I want to invest my future in software, training and inspiring people to go after their love.
What advice would you offer to someone facing similar circumstances?
For people who are in similar situations as me, I would only say this :
- Never react to whatever bad/negative people are saying about you. Never react to the sympathy or indifference they show. Believe in yourself and your dreams.
- Never let finances/money decide what you should do in life. Find what you love the most and then finances to do it will automatically come. You only need to believe !
- Never be scared or feel inferior just because you are disabled ! There may be so many other talents and good things you might possess within you. Find that out and live life with them.
- Make your life, actions and dreams as a message for the people. Rest all will take care by itself.
Who is your role model?
My parents and only my parents : For the belief they show in me. For the risks they take for me. For the patience they exhibit. For the silent fight he does against societies norms. For their sacrifices for me.
I am supremely confident that if every disabled child were to have parents like me who believe in fighting for dreams, going after love and taking risks that lead to freedom then every child can become much more than me.
How did you get selected for M.B.A. Program in ISB in such a young age?
With excellent academics ( 80.33 % in 10th, 95 % in inter, 942nd rank in eamcet, 89.94 % in engineering, research scholar in university of Wisconsin, Madison )
GMAT score of 720/800 ( 94 % ), GRE – 1470/1600, TOEFL – 110/120
Worked as software engineer in infosys, research assistant, librarian, C++ programmer, intern, writer and trainer in under 2 years.
My work with different NGOs
For being the first disabled Indian to skydive
For the belief with which I rejected IITs and scholarships and depended only on merit
For my videos https://www.youtube.com/user/saiprasadv
For my blogs : https://happy-blissfull.blogspot.com
For winning many awards in co curricular and in extra curricular activities
All these things together and all these done at my age forced ISB to give me the admission.
Published date : 15 Sep 2010 02:36PM
