Blind girl fights all odds to top management exam

Somit Sen I TNN

Mumbai: This is one person who truly believes in the power of positive thinking. Three years ago, Nikita Vaid, who is blind since birth, was dissuaded from taking the entrance exam for the Bachelor of Management Studies (BMS) course, an undergraduate programme run by the University of Mumbai. Officials distributing the forms told her she would be not be up to doing the project/field work and the accountancy papers. But Nikita took the test, and today she has not only completed the course, but also topped her class.

A student of Mulund College of Commerce, Nikita attributes her success to her “inner voice’’ which has always stood by her in difficult times. “Since childhood, I did not go to a school for the blind, though I learnt Braille at home. I believed I could also excel, just like any normal individual.’’

Her determination made her take the entrance test three years ago. She was unable to attempt questions that accounted for 30% of the marks because they involved visual reasoning. “It was a handicap. But I wagered my future on the other 70%. I managed to get a decent score,’’ she recalls.

Then came the second hurdle: the college dean doubted her potential. “Even my classmates were reluctant to speak to me. But I broke the ice,’’ she says. From participating in extra-curricular activities like singing (she is a trained Hindustani classical singer), to winning the College Queen title in her second year, Nikita enjoyed campus life and was selected as Best Student in 2005.

In her final semester, the statistics paper proved a problem as most questions had to be answered in a tabular form. “I met university officials and expressed my difficulty, but they were helpless. I decided not to give up. It was my third eye that solved every question,’’ she says. Her exam writer, too, was amazed at the speed with which she answered the papers.

Nikita now wants to pursue her MBA dream and is busy preparing for the competitive exams. She plans to specialise in human resources and take up a job. “I can even run my father’s plastics business,’’ she adds with a smile. Her father, Narinder Singh Vaid, said Nikita was a “selfmade’’ person and God-gifted. “I have provided her the facilities, she has motivated herself to succeed.’’

Nikita stood second in the merit list for the disabled in her SSC and first in the same list for the HSC. “When we learnt about her blindness, we were shaken. But I did not want her to end up in a hostel or a special school. I wanted to keep her under my care, and today she has made me proud,’’ says her mother of her youngest of her three daughters. Nikita has been to Goa and Hyderabad on college assignments. She was recently lauded by professors for her presentation on ‘The glass ceiling effect: How artificial barriers exist within an organisation which block women from attaining senior executive positions.’

Nikita, who has sung on All India Radio and also featured in a TV show, knows that her optic nerves are dead and even an eye transplant will not help. But today, she is proud to show off a bag full of certificates and trophies, and says there are more bags to be filled.

Publication:Times of India Mumbai; Date:Aug 23, 2006; Section:Times City; Page Number:9