Calcutta, Aug. 21 :     When Titir Banerjee of Sister Nivedita School went up to receive the Surrendra Paul Memorial Award for Courage this morning, many in the audience dabbed their eyes and fought back tears. Titir was not even in her teens when doctors decided she must go through life with an amputated stomach. She was in class V and that day in school she retched and complained of pain. In the medical examination that followed, doctors discovered that three-quarters of her stomach had corroded and would have to be scraped off. Since the operation, Titir has attended school just once a week for seven years. She must eat every half-hour. Despite the torment, Titir has put a smile on her parents and teachers? faces: in the higher secondary examinations this year, she totted up a score of 75 per cent. Titir?s story was just one of the profiles in courage narrated at the presentation of The Telegraph School Awards for Excellence. The awards have been instituted in association with Heritage Foundation. Honours for courage went to Soumyadeb Mukherjee, Biswarup Dutta and Vaibhav Lhila. Their stories, as of all the nominees, for the Surrendra Paul Memorial Award for Courage, will stay etched in memory. Soumyadeb Mukherjee, a student of Spastics Society, cannot move any part of his body. That has not kept him from being a wizard at the computer which he operates by using a tongue switch. Biswarup Dutta of St Xavier?s is confined to a wheelchair. The boy had weak legs which were improving with medication. Then a doctor said he would recover fully with surgery. It only worsened his condition. Unlike his classmates, Biswarup cannot run against the wind chasing a football. He used to be so weak that he could not even turn the pages of a book. His grit saw him through the ICSE examination this year. He dictated answers to a junior student, scoring 68 per cent. Vaibhav Lhila of La Martiniere was waiting with his father in Golpark, South Calcutta, a few years ago when a truck hit him.One of Vaibhav?s legs had to be amputated. He walks with crutches today but wants to be a fast bowler. ?I can?t run,? he says, ?but I can jump.?? Titir, Soumyadeb, Biswarup and Vaibhav received their awards from Lance Naik N. Mohanty, a jawan injured in the war in Kargil while Purba and Jaba, sisters of Captain Kanad Bhattacharya, who died fighting on a Tiger Hill ridge, applauded. Then there were Piru Das, Srikanta Sing and Nilratan Choudhury who overcame circumstances with their commitment to merit. Piru and Srikanta of Midnapore never had the luxury of a bulb glowing in their huts. Piru?s father is a cobbler; Srikanta?s father a rickshawpuller. In Madhyamik this year, Piru scored 88 per cent. Srikanta who had never touched a calculator is now studying computers at Jadavpur University. Nilratan, blind in both eyes, failed in maths in Class V. He scored full marks in the subject in Madhyamik and secured an overall 73 per cent. His mother, a tuberculosis patient, is a domestic help and his father pulls a rickshaw in Kasba. The three boys have won scholarships for a year. Thirteen awards were given away. St James and Don Bosco (Park Circus) were declared joint winners of The Telegraph School of the Year Award. The Patton Award for the School that Cares went to the Oral School for the Deaf on Short Street; the Ambuja Cement Award for the best maintained school was given to Sainik School, Purulia, and the Polar Fan Award for academic excellence went to Tirthojyoti Sarkar of the R.K. Mission Boys? Home High School, Rahara. The Dr Mrs N.B. O? Brien Memorial Lifetime Achievement Award for a teacher went to Priyadarshan Tiwari of Acra Shaktigar Rabindra Vidhyapith. Convener Barry O?Brien announced that Phyllis Pearson Manuel and Sister Cyril had been inducted into The Telegraph Hall of Fame. National Gems school has donated Rs 1 Lakh to the The Telegraph Education Fund. The school wants the amoun to be used to educated children who have lost their fathers in Kargil.