Amit Jain says he always knew he wasn’t meant for mediocrity. And that belief has held true as he is the first visually handicapped student at Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. The hurdles were many and some remain. With a 75 per cent visual impairment caused by ‘‘white cataract’’, Jain has to use a large magnifying glass to read newspapers. Weighing on his mind while writing the Common Admission Test (CAT) was the fact that he’d failed twice in his attempts to join the Indian Administrative Service (IAS). He once made it to the interview and the next time, failed to clear the prelims.‘‘I wasn’t in the best of spirits, but my parents forced me to take CAT,’’ says Jain, whose father works with Union Bank. ‘‘I knew I had to be competent, accurate, and fast. Since my B.Com at J.V. Jain College in Saharanpur, I wanted to go for a management course. Thanks to my parents, I’m here.’’Says his teacher, Prof M.S. Sriram, ‘‘It’s commendable that despite the handicap, Amit works largely on his own. Apart from question papers in large fonts and extra lighting at his desk, we’ve done nothing for him.’’Jain knows he has to put in extra effort to juggle his study schedules, but he seems to be managing well. Says friend Abhishek Dubey, ‘‘Initially, Amit was apprehensive whether his eyes would be able to take the load. But in these months he’s proven himself. Despite his limitation, he believes in himself.’’For another friend Deepak Jain ‘‘when it comes to class participation, Amit does much better than many of us. His handicap never overshadows his performance. He’s equally competitive.’’Technology has helped him. Jain uses a software named Magic 8.0 to magnify characters on his computer monitor. He also uses a Curzweil 3000, which reads out scanned material. ‘‘In class I’m on my own. I sit in the front-row and take extensive notes,’’ he says. ‘‘In the first and second terms, the Blind People’s Association sent me a reader, along with course material on cassettes. But now we have more numerics in the course, so I’m doing it myself.’’Perhaps dealing with his handicap since an early age has prepared Jain for the challenges. He says he remembers facing severe problems with his eyes — which have been operated upon four times — when he was in Std XII. Doctors ruled out a cure, and at times the future seemed bleak.
