 |
| Habeeb.C, Farook College, Kozhikode |
Ordinary people often have to close their eyes to avoid distraction and achieve concentration of mind. Herein, perhaps, lies the advantage of visually-challenged like Habeeb.C of Farook College, Kozhikode, who secured first rank in the BA English examination of Calicut University recently. His twin-brother and classmate, Akbar C, who too is visually-challenged, secured 3rd rank in the same examination.
In the academic race he had a late start at the age of 8. But that did not deter him from attaining academic excellence. He secured 550/600 in SSLC and 87% in Plus Two (Humanities). Though he is good in academic pursuits, he is not a bookworm, as he himself confesses. He is Kerala’s elected representative to the National Federation of the Blind and former president of the students wing of Kerala Federation of the Blind. The team led by Habeeb and Akbar won the first prize in the group song contest in the State School Youth Festival in 1999.
He won the second prize in Malayalam elocution in the Calicut University Inter Zone Youth Festival in 2004. He is an active participant in ‘Aksharaslokam’, versification, essay writing and quiz competitions and can play the tabala.
His father, C.Kunhahammed is an agricultural worker and a panchayat member. His mother Havva is a housewife.
Habeeb is the recipient of a scholarship from Foundation for Academic Excellence and Access, which is supported by the Ford Foundation. During one of the interactions, a teacher at his college asked him what he would ask for if he were given a boon. He said that he would ask for the boon of becoming an IAS officer. “The teacher may have thought that I would ask for vision. Vision to me is not that important now as I can study with the help of modern equipment. I read now with special software for the blind,” he says.
In the knowledge-economy, perhaps the real handicap is not physical challenge, but knowledge-handicap.
Courtesy:
J.S.Bablu, The Hindu, January 10, 2006
Contributed by: Administrator
