The story of Kartik Sawhney is pretty inspirational, as it will bring back your confidence level and make you understand how you feel to be accepted after a lot of rejections.
Name: Kartik Sawhney
Profession: Co-Founder of Nextbillion.org
Nationality: Indian
Facts about Kartik Sawhney:
Kartik Sawhney is currently an undergraduate but; his academic journey was not less than winning a battle of struggles. He is pursuing his studies at Stanford University. He is like any other common student, studying abroad; however, what makes him different from the rest is his blindness.
His vision impairment was not really that frustrating until he got rejected by the IITs of India. They considered his blindness to be a disadvantage above all his other skills and caliber. Karthik’s academic career was remarkable! He completed his CBSE 12th Standard exams with 95%. Things were not easy for him then too. Kartik was thrown upon turmoil of challenges for convincing the university to give him science as a special subject in 11th.
Mostly, blinds are considered to be incompetent to study subjects like science and math, but this did not let Kartik’s spirit to die. Kartik has scored amazingly well in all his subjects. The major challenge was to enter the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT). The exams conducted by the institute did not have any options for visually challenged people to apply.
Kartik’s father owns a car accessories shop in Delhi; however business never really fascinated him so early and he always wanted to become a software developer.
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Motivational Factor:
I don’t know whether to call this as an inspirational story or write it as a message of disgust to pass to Indian Universities who lost a brilliant student like Kartik Sawhney. It’s sad to know that we judge people by their looks, abilities, disabilities, appearance, and personality. The most important aspect of judgment which is one’s intellect is often missed out.
In one of his interviews, Kartik stated that he wishes to build software and apps that will help the disabled people to live a better life independently. If a blind man is thinking of the nation’s progress, I am ashamed to share that people who have visions to see, actually failed to notice the desire of his learning. There are many impaired students like Kartik, who are often rejected by schools for further studies.
I just want to share that there should be no clause or law in this world that must stop students from finding education in subjects that interest them, irrespective of their health concerns. When we were born as Homo sapiens, we had no clue about this world and how to develop it. We were all uneducated. There was only one thing that kept us growing and developing further; it was the desire to learn!
I can very well relate Kartik’s state of mind while facing these rejections. When I was in the process of divorce, I had a huge challenge of enrolling my child for the school. It is because her father never turned up to sign on the school’s admission form as proof of her last name was missing. All my documents were lying with him. I agree there are rules where a mother can mention her name instead the father, but the law of last name remains the same in India. My daughter has missed out on some good schools for her education for two years. Moreover, the rejection was killing me slowly inside as I knew it wasn’t her fault at all that she had to go through this much.
If being a settled woman, I can go through an array of emotions; I can very well understand how frustrating it would be for Kartik to face these rejections simply for the desire to learn. His never ending spirit amazes me and I am sure his story will help many people to raise their confidence level. My heart feels sorry for our country that they lost a stupendous student like Kartik and perhaps, maybe an amazing software developer too.
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He could have gained sympathy easily or joined his father’s business; however he chose to go with his inner spirit of learning. Stanford will be proud to have a highly-spirited boy, who has so much to give from his studies. I so wish that Kartik achieves all the success in life and may his dreams come true. He is a self-built man.
