Not SSC toppers but more than that

Her Class X achievement is striking because it comes despite speech impairment and hearing disability. She uses hearing aid and can barely talk.

“We never treated her differently. We had some problem in her admission. No school would accept her due to her disability. Finally we went to Huzurpaga and she was given a chance to be normal like other kids her age,” said Simantini,Madhura’s mother.

“We could have put her in a school for special children but then her language skills wouldn’t have developed. From the very start,I discouraged her from using sign language and talked to her. We took her for speech and hearing therapies. Her teachers never discriminated against her and everybody talked to her. In this way her language skills developed and she was able to talk at least haltingly. This helped her a lot in scoring high marks,” said Simantini.

“I studied from the very start of the academic year. I was never tense during the examinations and always completed studies on time. That helped me achieve this success,” said Madhura.

Madhura is also a sports enthusiast. “She loves sports,especially badminton. She used to practise badminton until January this year. She is also into drawing and painting. She has always been amongst the first five students of our school. She secured a high rank in National Talent Search Examination,” said Kakatkar.

Huzurpaga got a success rate of 98.48 per cent in SSC this year.

“Sometimes she used to complain that students tease her because of her disability. I had drilled it into into her from the very beginning that society will not change for her and she has to change to live in society. It was a challenge but I am happy she succeeded so far,” said Simantini.

“I would also like to give a message to all parents who give up on their disabled children. Proper care at the right time will do wonders to kids. Never give up on them,” added Simantini.

Himanshu Pataskar scored 60.72 per cent in SSC,way below the school topper’s 95.45 per cent. But everyone in the school,including the topper,is all praise for Pataskar. Himanshu is suffering from cerebral palsy along with spastic hip dislocation that makes it even hard for him to sit properly in a chair without support,let alone study for long hours.

“Himanshu was born with this disability. At first it was hard for him to even sit without moving. For two years we just took him to Montessori school so that he will sit through. When he started school it was a trial and error situation for us. We had to make him sit with padding and vest in a special wheelchair. We had to get him into a corner seat so that others were not disturbed. Whatever we did with him was an experiment. If it succeeded we continued,” said Sangeeta Pataskar,Himanshu’s mother.

“Dixit ma’am helped me a lot in studies. All the teachers helped me a lot and I am thankful to them. I am also thankful to my school,New English School,Ramanbaug. I am also thankful to my friends who wrote the exam for me and my parents who supported me throughout,” said Himanshu struggling to piece together his sentences with a smile.

“It is hard for him to read and study. So we used to dictate things to him 8-10 times. Everything was told to him till he understood each word. We had to sit him through therapies so that he could study with other children in a normal school,” said Sangeeta.

“He is also a big cricket fan,” added Sangeeta.