Source: Times of India | Image Courtesy: Bunty Dada CareerAvsar
Akshsansh Gupta, 32-year-old, was recently awarded the doctorate degree by India’s top University, Jawaharlal Nehru University.
Akshsansh struggled to receive the award the handed over to him by VC SK Sopory but the lit up face and expressive eyes said it was a sign of victory.
He is Bunty Dada on the campus.
Gupta’s lower limbs are non-functional while his speech is difficult to be understood. He grew up with cerebral palsy. He is deemed 95% disabled.
Even the more equipped person sometimes cringes at the hardships Bunty faced in trying to get a doctorate degree. The university honored him with the special convocation, months in advance of the formal ceremony next year.
Bunty sailed through the hardships to finish writing his thesis on “Brain Computer Interface” and even managed to travel to Malaysia to present a paper on his chosen subject of computer science.
He finds computer science easier because of the practical and laboratory work it requires. Gupta recalls his early days of struggle when taking up admission in his hometown of Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh, was a challenge.
As Times of India published the quote of Gupta- where he says, with justified amount of resentment that in general, in our country the attitude towards people with disabilities is quite negative and the first thing people ask is, ‘Kya karega padhke (What will you gain by studying)?’”.
Well, the mother as it should be, placed among the goddesses as she was the one in the family who insisted the tot be given an education. The other was Meera Sahu, a teacher who finally got him admitted to school.
Gupta is extremely grateful to Mahajan, the rickshaw puller who transported him every day to Umanath Singh Institute of Engineering and Technology in Jaunpur, where he pursued a BTech degree in computer science. Both of them conversed about the world beyond Jaunpur and this was the time when Gupta decided to step out of Jaunpur. Though he faced resistance from his family but ultimately he found himself in Delhi.
Piyush Maurya, an MPhil student who also happens to be the mate of Gupta at JNU says Gupta has an extraordinary mind. He adds Gupta wanted to prove that disability was a myth.
Gupta is hopeful of getting a job, preferably in the university itself. If JNU obliges, he will be overjoyed. He doesn’t carry the grudge against the government for framing the disability policy without consulting the affected people as they are not vote banks for whom the government frame policies whom the government consider their vote bank.
