Shreya Saha refuses to believe that she could score 85 in political science. “It is my second most favourite subject. I could not get less than 95,” she shakes her head.
The HA Block girl has scored 92.6 per cent in the CBSE Class XII finals. The fact that she has achieved such a result with a severe visual impairment that does not allow her to read letters smaller than newspaper lead headlines makes the score itself difficult to believe.
“A physical handicap is no deterrent to success. Shreya is an example of what mental toughness can achieve,” says Himadri Sanyal, principal of Mother International School in CL Block, where Shreya studied for much of her student life. She appeared for her Board exams from Kalyani Public School, Barasat.
Shreya suffers from a congenitally under-developed retina. “The Regional Institute of Ophthalmology has estimated her blindness to be 75 per cent,” says mother Nupur, who has read aloud all text books for Shreya through her student life.
As a child Shreya faced problems following things being written in school. “Things improved from Class VI. The only subject involving board work was math but thankfully the teacher uttered every digit aloud while writing. I started using black sketch pen to take notes. Of course, I was very slow but I used short forms that I could decipher later.”
SHREYA’S MARKSHEET
History 99
Sociology 98
Bengali 96
Political Science 85
English 85
Tech tools
In recent years, technology has come to her aid. Her laptop is fitted with a software called Job Access with Speech, which is a screen reader. “Thankfully, now our CBSE text books can be downloaded in pdf form. Some of them could be converted to MS Word and Ma used to delete the pictures so that the screen reading software could function properly.”
She also uses a digital voice recorder to record question answers in her mother’s voice. The third weapon in her arsenal for this battle against odds was a video pocket magnifier. “We came across this gadget during one of our trips to Aravind Eye Hospital in Madurai. People in the US use it to read minute prints on medicine strips,” said Nupur.
Shreya turns on the gadget and bends over a text book with it, her nose almost touching the page. The letters appear on the screen, magnified to about 400 per cent. “I can change the colour too from what is printed in the text.” She uses the cheaper variety which costs about Rs 30,000.
Nupur realised something was wrong with Shreya’s vision when she was an infant. “Her eyes seemed vacant as she looked at me.” She had the experience to make out the tell-tale signs as her elder daughter Sneha too suffers from visual problem. “In her case, the blindness is 100 per cent.”
The need for treatment made the Sahas shift from Tripura to Calcutta. Their father Bimal gave up his legal profession and set up a grocery store on the ground floor of their Salt Lake house. Since then, Nupur has been battling it out to give her daughters a good education. It has helped that Shreya is so serious. “If I have to tell the older one to study, I have to force the younger one to let me take a break,” she smiles. Sneha, older by 10 years, has passed MA in English from Rabindra Bharati University and is preparing for civil services entrance exams.
Shreya admits that she studies like a maniac before exams. If giving two examples would suffice in an answer, she would not let go before memorising six. “When her exams approach, be it 2am or 5am, I would wake up and find her still at her table,” Sneha shrugs. “I had to be careful with the volume of my recorder so it did not wake up my mother. She would have forced me to sleep otherwise,” Shreya grins.
When she was younger, Shreya’s grandma looked after her studies and the hapless elderly lady would be torn from bed at ungodly hours because her grandchild wanted to revise one more time. “Even during the Board exams, from the minute we got into the car till we reached Aditya Academy, her examination centre in Barasat, I had to repeat her lessons constantly. She had every line committed to memory. In fact, even I could take the exam with her and do well,” Nupur laughs.
The mother of two has not forgotten the insults along the way. “I was bent on enrolling them at a mainstream school for an inclusive academic atmosphere. A well-known school literally drove me out.” Since the daughters need scribes to write their exams, guardians of some students had even cast aspersions that the scribes wrote more than the girls were capable of producing. Shreya, having been the class topper all through, faced this regularly. “Bhogoban sobaike mukher moto jobab diyechhen ei result-ey,” Nupur says bitterly.
Time to relax
Shreya’s relaxation is following the news. "I love international and national politics. I listen to the news on TV though I cannot follow the visuals much. I also love listening to the radio — Kolkata A, now called Gitanjali, Akashvani Maitree, which launched last August, Bangladesh Betar, of which I get the Khulna station, and FM Gold. I especially like a political analysis they do titled Taranga.”
She loves listening to the debates on ABP Ananda. She picked up some of her political science knowledge from the programme on the channel titled Pradhanmantri three years ago. “It focused on the regime of each Prime Minister since Independence.”
A Rabindrasangeet singer and a regular participant in school programmes, she is in her fifth year of a course at Sangeetalay in CE Block. “I also admire the police force. I believe policemen are true social reformers who are supposed to not only arrest culprits but also to bring them back to the mainstream.” She loves detective stories like the Pandob Goenda and Kakababu series which her mother reads out to her.
Sibling fights are common with the younger one striking the older and quieter sister often. “I do not like to quarrel. Hitting comes more naturally,” Shreya admits abashed.
She has got through the history admission for BA (Hons) at Presidency University. In the admission test, she was ranked ninth in the general category and first on the person with disabilities list. “I want to become a teacher or take the UPSC exam. I like to fight; I can cope with any situation,” says the determined girl, climbing downstairs unaided from the second floor to see off a guest.
