Nipun vaults to an effortless 92%

By Shreya Ray/TNN

New Delhi: He's not on the list of CBSE toppers. Neither has he made it to a swanky university abroad. But with 89.5% (a best-of- four of 92%) and the third highest position in his school (he can't believe he missed the second position for 0.2%), Nipun Malhotra has shown how being physically challenged can be merely incidental to one's existence.

 Nipun, an arthogrychosis patient from birth (that is, he has no muscles in the arms and legs), refused to take any of the special concessions offered to disabled students by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE).

 "I don't believe in short cuts. I feel that I am mentally capable and can compete with my contemporaries without any special advantages," he says.

 So, while he could have taken one subject less, this student of Apeejay, Noida, preferred to do without the concession.

 What about competition among friends? "I took great pride in telling them that.

We are the best of friends but we're fiercely competitive. The best part is that there is no element of sympathy in them," he says. "Not that there is any reason to sympathise," he adds, as an afterthought.

 Nipun says his confidence was bolstered after the Class 10 results, in which too, he had done outstandingly well.

 “I started feeling confident about my self. And others also started looking at me differently. Most people look at the physically challenged as if they are less intelligent," he says.

 But Nipun knows stepping out into the 'real' world is not going to be easy. The first hurdle being, college.

 "I don't have all the options that any other student with my percentage will have. I'd love to get into an SRCC or St Stephen's but these colleges are not wheelchair-friendly" he says.

 It is the lack of facilities that led Nipun to join a private college, which has lifts and also offered to construct ramps all over the campus.

 "The infrastructure needs a serious overhaul. Disabled students are almost confined to house arrest," he says, adding that the first time he saw disabled people roaming freely on the streets was in Europe.

 "Today I am going to a private college because my parents can afford it. What about thousands of other Nipuns who have the marks, the brains but not the resources? I just consider my-- self lucky" says a confident Nipun.

 Source: The Times of India, New Delhi

Dated: May 24, 2005.

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