Senior Officer, Corporate Planning

Senior Officer, Corporate Planning, Infosys Technologies Ltd…
Amongst top ten at I.I.M Bangalore…
All India Second in the ICWA examination…
Class topper in B.Com at Loyola College, Chennai…
Disability activist…
It's just besides the point that K. Sriram also happens to be visually impaired.

Janaki Pillai

"It was only when placement of people in jobs began at the IIM campus interviews that I came to realise for the first time in my life, how much prejudice exists about disabled persons. All my life I had encountered only support and encouragement. And with what I thought was a pretty decent track record, I thought I had a good chance! How wrong could a person be? Usually the brightest students are absorbed by the "best" companies within the first three days of campus interviews. "And here I was, ranked 7 of 175 students-three days and thirty three interviews later - I still had no job." Sriram's belief that hard work and academic credentials would pave the way came crashing down. After three days, his batch mates were worried. Everyone knew that the real issue was not qualification and performance, but a blinkered attitude towards a disability.

When Sriram's parents, Prof. Kalyanaraman and Mrs. Ramamani, were told that their only son, aged 4, was suffering from Retinitis Pigmentosa, they were understandably shattered. They realised that this meant that Sriram would have progressively deteriorating vision. But they slowly came in contact with and heard about other people with the same condition who had not let it get in the way of leading fulfilling lives. They thus decided that their son too must be equipped to handle life in all its dimensions. For this they were willing to give him more than 110 percent of their strength and love. "Looking back I can say that the single most important factor in my life has been the support of my parents. From emotional support to reading books and lessons over and again, helping with tests, accessing information and looking for new opportunities, they were always there for me."

And friends. Until Sriram was ten years old, he did not know about his condition