Girl overcomes debilitatingdisease to make it to IIT-K
Admitted under the persons with disabilities (PwD) quota for the academic session 2025-26, she will pursue BS in Mathematics and Scientific Computing.
Born with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), a debilitating condition that affects voluntary muscle movement, wheelchair-confined Riddhima defied all odds to become a beacon of hope for many. "I am delighted to be part of IIT-K. My admissions prove that 'where there is a will, there's a way," said Riddhima, sitting in her hostel room at IIT-K.
Citing Riddhima's journey through higher education as a powerful testament to her resilience, extraordinary courage, and determination, IIT-K's dean of student affairs Prof Pratik Sen said, "Riddhima has not just faced challenges, she has embraced and mastered them. Her remarkable strength inspires those around her."
Riddhima took JEE in 2024 and had a PwD rank of 12, but was one mark short for admissions to formal courses at IITs.
by Taboola
by Taboola
Sponsored Links
Sponsored Links
Promoted Links
Promoted Links
You May Like
American Investor Warren Buffett Recommends: 5 Books For Turning Your Life Around
Blinkist: Warren Buffett's Reading List
Undo
Thereafter, she undertook a mandatory one-year preparatory course at IIT-Indore. At the course, she cracked the qualifying esam to make it to IIT-K's BS course this year. "My parents never wanted me to go to a special school. After many denials, I got through one mainstream pre-school where I topped the nursery exams.
The teachers were astonished at my performance and told my parents that I was fit for class 1. Every year till class 4, I stood as class topper," recalled Riddhima.
Despite her whole body, right from the limbs, digestive system, respiratory system and spine, being affected, Riddhima had extraordinary cognitive abilities. When she was in class 8, she watched the Bollywood movie Super-30 starring Hrithik Roshan, which inspired her for IITs. In her class 10 and 12, she performed brilliantly, securing 94.8% and 90.8% respectively.
"Her dedication and positive attitude were truly inspiring.
Seeing her succeed in such a prestigious exam reaffirms my belief that with the right support and perseverance, no limitation is insurmountable," said Dipanka Shekhar Sanyal, who guided Riddhima in her JEE preparations.
The Pauls first noticed indications of the disease when Riddhima, like other kids, could not crawl or roll. They consulted local doctors who hardly knew about the malady. With the suspicion of a genetic component, the Pauls were advised to take Riddhima to the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bengaluru, when she was barely three years old, the time to go to school.
The NIMHANS report confirmed SMA.
"Doctors told us that Riddhima would not live longer than 10 years. But we believed that there is hope as long as she breathes (saans hai to aas hai)," said Riddhima's mother Arunita Paul, who is her biggest pillar of support and stays with her on the IIT-K campus.
Growing up to be an attractive, intelligent, and articulate baby, Riddhima could already sing in tune when she was 18 months old and showed interest in chess at five.
A year before, at four, she could raise herself from a sitting position. "With limited resources, we could organise physiotherapy sessions for her weekly. When she was eight years old, the first symptoms of scoliosis (spine bending) began to appear," said Riddhima's father, Rajib Paul, ASI, Malda police.
Despite her mental stamina, she could not walk, which attracted insensitive remarks from relatives and neighbours — an irritant Arunita learnt to live with.
"There was not a single day without struggle. People mocked her and us for making her study. Many even told us to get rid of her, which made us stronger, and we rose to the challenge, keeping our morale high," said Arunita.
Finally, in 2022, a team of doctors in Bengaluru performed a scoliosis surgery that lasted for almost 10 hours. "The surgery gave me strength to pursue higher studies. My love for mathematics is from an early age of three. I used to sit with my uncle when he took tuitions for elder students, and that helped me learn numbers quickly," said Riddhima.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
Chronicling a community's culinary traditions through the pages of a magazine
My aunt Manjula Padmanabhan remembers the food from when she worked at Parsiana magazine . 'There was dhansak , of course,' she says. 'And a very rich chicken curry made with almonds.' This was probably sau badam ni curry , which is actually made with 101 almonds, one extra added for good luck. The food was a benefit of Parsiana's peculiar location, in the Parsi Lying-In Hospital , a heritage building in Mumbai's Fort area that was built for Parsi mothers to deliver their babies in restful, hygienic conditions. This had extended to a crèche and the food for the children came from Maki Adenwalla, the mother of Jehangir Patel, Parsiana 's editor. Anything extra was happily eaten by the magazine's team. Explore courses from Top Institutes in Please select course: Select a Course Category Others CXO Project Management healthcare Design Thinking Finance Public Policy Operations Management MBA Data Science Data Science Data Analytics Product Management Technology MCA Leadership Cybersecurity Management PGDM others Artificial Intelligence Healthcare Digital Marketing Degree Skills you'll gain: Duration: 28 Weeks MICA CERT-MICA SBMPR Async India Starts on undefined Get Details Skills you'll gain: Duration: 7 Months S P Jain Institute of Management and Research CERT-SPJIMR Exec Cert Prog in AI for Biz India Starts on undefined Get Details Skills you'll gain: Duration: 16 Weeks Indian School of Business CERT-ISB Transforming HR with Analytics & AI India Starts on undefined Get Details Skills you'll gain: Duration: 9 months IIM Lucknow SEPO - IIML CHRO India Starts on undefined Get Details Patel took over Parsiana in 1973, from Pesi Warden, who started it in 1964. Warden wanted to preserve community traditions, but was also a gadfly to institutions like the Parsi Punchayet. When Patel, who had studied at Yale and worked in American newspapers, took over — for just one rupee — he instilled strict journalistic rigour along with an appreciation for Parsi quirks. The latest issue reports on a Parsi Lego lover who is building a model of ancient Persepolis using the plastic bricks. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Helping Organizations Close The Gap Between Technical Invention And Commercial Innovation; Interview with Colin Scott, Senior Vice President of DownSelect® at Innventure. - TechBullion TechBullion Undo Community media is often conservative, influenced by how the most vociferous defenders of traditions tend to be reactionary. Parsiana was always firmly progressive, even in its public notices, where it published news of the interfaith marriages abhorred by traditionalists. Its opponents vilified it, yet never stopped reading it, perhaps reluctantly acknowledging its scrupulous reporting. Beyond just the Parsi community, Patel also mentored generations of Mumbai journalists, including some who worked at Parsiana . My aunt and my mother Geeta were both examples, respectively designing covers for the early issues and writing features and reviews. This meant that I spent time as a kid in the office (though sadly, never got the food!) It stayed seemingly unchanged over the decades, even as the rest of the building fell silent, a symbol of plummeting Parsi birth rates and migration abroad. Parsiana 's coverage kept pace, reporting on the diaspora as much a s the communities in India, while the office remained an evocation of an ideal small magazine office, with Patel's desk labelled 'Editor', old covers on the wall and neat piles of more current issues. The deep Parsi involvement in hospitality and love of food was well reflected in the magazine. I remember covers on Parsi bakeries and soft drink manufacturers, and reports on young Parsi chefs making their name in India and abroad. Keeping up my family involvement, I was roped in by Patel to review Parsi cookbooks, like Niloufer Ichaporia King 's My Bombay Kitchen . The food interest even extended outside the magazine when it opened a shop to sell Parsi products, like marvellous aged sugarcane vinegar from Kolah's of Navsari and their lemon and date and mixed fruit pickles. (Sadly, the shop closed a few years ago). Parsiana recently announced that it would be ceasing publication from October. In a characteristically frank editorial, it said the publication 'has fallen prey to the ills that plague the community, namely a dearth of new entrants to the profession'. Suggestions had been made to outsource or create content in other ways, but for that to happen credibly, those doing the job would need to have a deep knowledge of 'the community, its decision makers, trends, history, religion, strengths, weaknesses'. The implicit question, perhaps, was if it could not be done properly, was it worth doing? Food offers a piquant twist to this question. Cookbooks can make Parsi recipes widely available. Hospitality brands, in India and abroad, like Sodabottleopenerwala and Dishoom, can draw on Parsi food traditions to create a commercially successful simulacrum. So, does it matter if real Parsi food gets ever harder to find? Parsiana was a place where such questions could be seriously debated, and for that alone, its ending feels like a real loss.
Deccan Herald
7 hours ago
- Deccan Herald
No pages, just people: At IIT Palakkad, stories come to life in a human library
An IIT assistant professor said the Human Library is a one-of-a-kind space where real people become 'books,' sharing their experiences, breaking barriers, and sparking meaningful conversations.
News18
8 hours ago
- News18
No pages, just people: At IIT Palakkad, stories come to life in a human library
Palakkad (Kerala), Aug 3 (PTI) What if a library lent out people instead of books? At the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Palakkad, that question is no longer hypothetical. The prestigious engineering institute is assembling a 'Human Library"- -an unconventional project where visitors can read 'human books". These 'human books" will share their stories in conversations, offering readers not just narratives, but flesh-and-blood lessons in resilience. If a person has faced social stigma, overcome barriers related to caste, class, gender, colour, occupation, disabilities, or other challenges, and has a unique story to share, they can become a 'human book" in the upcoming Human Library event hosted by IIT Palakkad, an official said. He said the initiative draws inspiration from the well-known Human Library movement, which began in Denmark years ago. The institution plans to introduce a similar concept in the state, providing a platform for marginalised individuals to share their personal stories, he added. An IIT assistant professor said the Human Library is a one-of-a-kind space where real people become 'books," sharing their experiences, breaking barriers, and sparking meaningful conversations. The one-day event is being hosted under the aegis of the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, in association with the Unnat Bharat Abhiyan (UBA), a flagship programme of the Union Ministry of Education. A queer mental health researcher and a trained clinical psychologist, Sudharshan said such platforms are inevitable for the discriminated people to open up about their harrowing experiences, traumatised moments, and daily psychological violence and abuse they face in life. The faculty said he himself has been subjected to several discriminations even at the IIT campus over various stereotypes, and so he is clearly convinced about the significance of such a platform. 'If any change happens in the minds of any reader (participant) after reading the stories of our books (marginalised people) in the Human Library, it may gradually pave the way for a social change. That is the objective of hosting such an event," he explained. Kottayi said he recently approached the Denmark-based organisation to get a publishing partnership to host the Human Library at the campus. 'I am the publishing partner, and IIT Palakkad is the host institution. As per their instructions, we have to host the event within one year. We plan to organise it in January or February next year," he said. If the event is organised successfully at the IIT, the partnership may get renewed, and they will get permission to host similar events in a public space like a library or town hall. 'People from anywhere in India can apply to become human books. But, as per the guidelines of the Denmark organisation, we cannot provide any monetary support to the books for their participation, as it should be completely voluntary," the assistant professor explained. Prabhulladas R, the UBA project coordinator at IIT Palakkad, said the Human Library offers recognition to the profound emotional landscapes of the marginalised people that are trained to silence. 'Human library is a concept in which an individual himself or herself becomes a book based on his or her experience," he told PTI. Based on their profound personal experiences in life so far, they will be declared as books, he said. 'We are now on a mission to identify such people who have unique personal stories to share. Those who are willing to narrate their profound personal experiences with the readers (the participants) in the event can apply now," he explained. The persons who are interested in such topics can come to the 'human library" as readers and 'read" those 'human books" by interacting with them, he said. Prabhulladas said they are getting many queries and emails from persons belonging to diversified areas in this regard. 'We have identified 7 persons to become human books. A person suffering from complete albinism, a disabled individual, and a transgender doctor are among them. Nothing finalised…Our search is continuing," he said. As per the guidelines, at least 12 'books" are needed to host a Human Library. After identifying the 'books", they would get an orientation under the IIT team on how to present themselves during the event. 'As Human Library is a live event, there can be any kind of questions from the readers. There may be some intimidating questions. But, there is no need for 'books" to answer the questions that they are not comfortable with," Kottayi said. In such circumstances, they can answer like, 'that chapter is yet to be written". 'Those people are already subjected to several discrimination and mental and physical torture. So, the event should not be a further traumatising experience for them. So, they have all the freedom to give such ethical excuses," the assistant professor added. People belonging to different walks of life, including students, youths, scholars, and the general public, are expected as readers (participants) in the 'human library," the IIT sources added. PTI LGK ROH (This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed - PTI) view comments First Published: August 03, 2025, 10:15 IST News agency-feeds No pages, just people: At IIT Palakkad, stories come to life in a human library Disclaimer: Comments reflect users' views, not News18's. Please keep discussions respectful and constructive. Abusive, defamatory, or illegal comments will be removed. News18 may disable any comment at its discretion. By posting, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
