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| Atheeth Sajeevan, Kozhikode. |
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He was a premature
baby at birth. And he may be a ‘premature’
baby among the Civil Service winners too.
For he had cleared the formidable exam in his very first attempt despite
the handicaps of poor eyesight and other health issues.
Atheeth
Sajeevan was born without vision in his left eye. The right eye had a power of -18.5. Besides, he suffered from low platelet count. That resulted in his being an outsider to the
extracurricular activities of his classmates at school.
He had to sit in the front bench as otherwise he couldn’t have read what
was written on the board.
Despite these
difficulties, with the help of caring teachers at Kendriya Vidyalaya, Kozhikode,
he was able to score well in the Plus Two exam.
For his undergraduate studies, he won selection
for the Social Science studies at IIT, Madras and the
National Law School, Bengaluru and chose the latter.
In the
fourth year of the five-year programme, without prompting from anyone, he felt
a desire to compete for the Civil Services exams. So, while in the final year of his study, he
wrote the Preliminary Exam, without any coaching.
As he felt
confident about his performance, he started preparation for the Main exam right
in earnest from then onwards. Though his
poor vision was a handicap in reading printed text, he overcame that by
watching educational videos and reading on digital devices. For this exam too,
he prepared on his own staying at home at Kozhikode. And despite apprehension, he cleared this
exam too.
As he was
able to clear the Interview too, he was selected with rank of 737. In a selection process, where veterans of
many attempts often become successful, he had cleared the hurdle ‘prematurely’.
To the many
differently-abled who contact him based on his success, his advice is: if I can do it, you too can.
Courtesy: Sruti Sreekumar (text), Manorama Aarogyam, September 2019
