Shy but strong, 17-year-old Rajat from Aani village of Kullu district in Himachal Pradesh is an inspiration for many.

He lost both the arms in a mishap involving electrocution ten years back, but neither he nor his parents lost the courage to battle out the odds with flying colours.

At a young age of 7 years, Rajat learnt to write with mouth and feet to excel so much that he passed his matriculation exam with 88 per cent marks from a private school in the remote area from HP Board of School Education. He is a very good painter and can draw sketches in a similar manner. He is now pursuing medical stream in twelfth standard in the same village school, with a dream to get highly educated and become a ‘Professor’.

Rajat was here to receive a special prize for taking part in the ‘Brain of Himachal’ competition organised by Aspire IIT and medical coaching academy, which is run by IITians in Shimla.

Looking at his extraordinary capacities and academic excellence despite disability, the academy announced free of cost guidance in education and any other help to him.

Rajat, however, was cool. “It’s my way of life now. I have to put in more effort than others. That’s it. Only sometimes, I get upset that I could have achieved even more had I not met with the mishap,” said Rajat, who has a faint memory of the mishap, which occurred due to some open high voltage wires in the village.

“I just remember that when I lost my arms and was still recovering in the hospital, my father asked me to hold pen in the foot and try to write. And that helped me with continuity in studies,” Rajat said. He said some years back, he tried to hold the pen in his mouth and write, and gradually with practice, he learnt it. “This made the life easier for me,” he said.

Rajat can work on computer, all other electronic gadgets and can do his own work, like washing clothes and finds that he is independent to a great extent. He, however, has to take his younger brother during examination to turn the pages of answer sheet, just to save time.

“There is nothing that I can’t do. But I just get really get nervous when there is too much focus on me,” he shared, as he tried to shun limelight even the prize distribution function.

Rajat’s father, Jai Ram, who retired last year as a school teacher, said when his son got disabled in third standard, the family went in shock for a moment. “But then we thought, if he has to live like this, let’s not sit and waste time, weeping. Let’s enable him to work without hands so that there is no gap in his education,” his father said.

He urges the government to at least increase financial help (presently only Rs 1250 per month as disability pension) to his son so that he has no financial constraint to pursue his career.