Journalism of Courage
If you can hold a cigarette between your toes and smoke,you can definitely hold a pen and learn to write. These were the words that changed the life of 17-year-old Rajesh Pilley who lost both his arms as a child and was rescued from the street outside CST station by an NGO which found him smoking cigarettes at the age of six.
Conquering his addiction and disability,Rajesh appeared for the Maharashtra SSC exams this February,using his toes to write. In results declared today,he scored 71 per cent. Despite being offered a writer by the Vakola municipal school where he studies,Rajesh used his toes to write all his papers. He can draw accurate diagrams with his toes and also plays carrom and chess.
From Beed district in Maharashtra,he is believed to have been abandoned by his mother after his father’s death. He started begging on the streets of Mumbai. He has no recollection of how and when he lost his arms. He was rescued from the streets by Support.
Despite his disability,the BMC school was very compassionate and let him study with normal students instead of insisting that he join a school for the disabled. During the exam,he even got an extension of half an hour and a carpet on which he could sit and write as he cannot write with his toes sitting on a proper desk and bench, said Sujata Ganega,director of Support.
How pune fared
86.46: Pass %age of girls
80.61: Boys
84.95: Pass %age in
general mathematics
85.44: State
86.02: Pass %age in regular mathematics in distt
90.39: Pass %age of fresh students
33.54: Pass %age of
repeaters
