This blog is output of 10 mins conversation I had with
Suresh Reddy, my Visually Challenged student, Qualified from IIM, Calcutta few
months back!!!
It’ll be great, if someone could interview him for above role ignoring his Disability (which has Work Place Solutions) and if there is a challenge apart from disability hep him understand and overcome that challenge...
There are many people like Suresh in our country!!! I would end this here with a hope to see inclusion becoming a process and with a request, please “Don’t Sympathise But Empathise”
Suresh Reddy, as I remember, rewinds my memory 9-10 years
back, was my first formal Volunteering assignment. While working at IBM I was
in parallel pursuing PGDBA from Symbiosis Centre for Distance Learning. Me and
my friend Pradeepa (who joined IBM on same day) decided to do something
worthwhile during weekends. We contacted Anna at iVolunteer whom I knew since
my CA article ship days. She connected us to Samarthanam Trust for disabled
where we used to go every weekend and teach a super dedicated, hard
worker, visually challenged, very intelligent and confident boy Suresh Reddy
who was doing his BBM. Teaching him in turn had benefited me a lot. I used to
teach him some commerce subjects one of which was Income Tax. As he lost his
eyes when he was in 7th standard, I actually used to teach him some formulae on
his hand. He cleared his exam with good % and we were very happy that we did
something good and worth it!!! Later after my return from US trip (where I had
been on a short assignment through IBM) I had missed almost all PGDBA semester
exams. The only paper left was Income Tax and I decided not to miss this opportunity
of writing at least this one paper... Can you believe without any studies, I
just glanced the book, appeared my exam and while I was in Exam hall I actually
started recollecting all that I had taught to Suresh and wrote my exam very
well. When the results were declared many people flunked in Income tax and to
my surprise I scored 83 marks... Lesson learnt: Helping others is a great help
to self!!! During my volunteering journey of teaching Suresh, I learnt many
things like dedication, importance of commitment and communication, about
disability and challenges faced and much more. It had helped me a lot
personally... Post teaching him I got involved in many other social activities,
joined iVolunteer, connected many volunteers to help Suresh and others... While
we were busy and caught up in our lives Suresh always kept Pradeepa, Asha and
self posted on his whereabouts. We always felt happy as he kept on succeeding
in his life. He completed BBM, joined Sasken then worked at WIPRO and here came
a day where his dream for years together of joining India’s Top most college
came true... Yes!!! Suresh cleared his CAT and got admission in IIM, Calcutta.
He did face challenges but as we all knew him, he came out of the same with
flying colours.... None of us including Suresh actually imagined that hard part
would start for him after he is out of IIM Calcutta successfully.... In last 3
months, I would have got some 15 calls from him where although he seemed
Disturbed and depressed internally he was trying to pretend to be strong and
trying to find networks who could help him get an interview fixed for Role THAT
HE DESERVES.
His struggle is still on, this week he is taking help from
few volunteers to revise some of subjects, so that he can appear Central
Government related exams.... Sunday he has SAIL exam, next month RBI Exam and
his struggle is on... While he is studying for all these exams and is utilising
iVolunteer office space for Readers’
Service we had an interesting 10 mins chat yesterday, which infact led me to
write this blog... I might not be able to put all that he said in structured
manner but few points those came out were as below and ya believe me I am
posting it, as is spoken by him....
Maam, see Maam, after being Qualified from IIM, I am back to
studying again... What is CSR all about? Is it about giving money (5% of profit
earned) or is it Encouraging people from various background??? As part of CSR
initiative can they take a day out to Evaluate “Qualified Disabled” as per
their requirement??? Why can’t any company confidently say how many people
hired are Disabled and Qualified and I am solely talking from perspective of “A
Qualified Visually Impaired” “A Qualified VI” Maam. 90% of companies that
came to IIM for campus interview did not accept my profile, just because I was
VI.... Corporates talk about Equal Opportunities and claim to have been
sensitized towards the issue, but the moment I say I am Visually Impaired, they
hesitate and say currently there is no opening!!! Are they sensitised in true
sense or are they ignorant or are they knowledgeable??? It’s just like a house,
if I have to buy a House, even if I am Visually Impaired, if I can afford to
buy it no one can stop me, but if I have to get a house on rent, seeing my
impairment people hesitate to!!! So I don’t know finally.... “Who will trust
me???”
This is story of Suresh, who completed his PGDM in area of
specialisation is HR and marketing, from IIM Calcutta, is also having 6
years of experience in the HR domain like Recruitment, Training and
development and Knowledge management before joining IIM. As he is Visually
Impaired his visually impairment is haunting job selection process, though
he has gained competence to work in corporate environment. Also he is specifically
seeking job in HR area. His other achievements include:
- Finalist,
Strategic Marketing Workshop competition conducted by Chennai Alum
Chapter, IIMC
- Represented
Karnataka in Athletics at National Sports, 2001
- Awarded
“Best Disciplined Student” and “All Rounder” for 2 consecutive years
(1999, 2000) at SRMAB, Bangalore.
- Featured
in CNN-IBN, Indian Express, Pagalguy.com to highlight his achievement as
the first 100% visually impaired student across all IIMs.
It’ll be great, if someone could interview him for above role ignoring his Disability (which has Work Place Solutions) and if there is a challenge apart from disability hep him understand and overcome that challenge...
There are many people like Suresh in our country!!! I would end this here with a hope to see inclusion becoming a process and with a request, please “Don’t Sympathise But Empathise”
