The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : He has many feathers in his cap

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jun 26, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

He has many feathers in his cap

Lalithasai

Prathyush is battling a rare spinal muscular atrophy

YOUNG ACHIEVER: Prathyush receiving an award.

CHENNAI: Prathyush Nalam of class VIII, PSBB, T. Nagar, was the only one from Chennai who made it to New Delhi last month and secured third place in the 8th National Science Olympiad (NSO), which was held during November (I level) last year.

This is the latest in a long list of achievements of this boy who is battling a rare spinal muscular atrophy that hampers his leg movements.

A member of Mensa - the international high IQ society, Prathyush is one of the top ten students in the Assessment of Scholastic Skills through Education Testing (ASSET) in 2005.

But his greatest feat is that he is the youngest Microsoft Certified Solution Developer (MCSD) in the world. He became an MCSD when he was just 9. He cleared all the four papers in just 3 months.

At the National Science Olympiad, Prathyush was declared winner based on his excellence in extra curricular and co-curricular activities and in-depth understanding of Science and Maths in his class level.

According to him, it was a thorough understanding of subjects that won him this award. "Questions in the first level were a mixture of easy and tough ones. The mental ability part was easy and there were more questions on logical reasoning.

Science questions were mostly application oriented. "A month-long preparation is necessary to excel in these exams," he added. His mother Srilakshmi says, "Prathyush got a fair idea about the Olympiads in 2004 when he appeared for the National Cyber Olympiad and obtained 36th rank in it. He was given Rs. 500 and a gold medal as he had also secured the first rank in the exam in school level.

Srilakshmi, a high school biology teacher, helps him with biology and he also takes help from his father, N. V. Rama Rao, a coast guard officer, for Physical Science lessons. "Apart from just clearing simple doubts we do not do much. It is all his hard work and sincerity," says his mother proudly. His voracious reading habit has helped Prathyush to be meritorious not only in Olympiads but also in many other examinations. The Sornammal Educational Trust has also given him the Young Achiever Award 2005. In the Maths Olympiad conducted by The Association of Mathematics Teacher of India, in October 2005, Prathyush secured III rank at the national level in the sub-junior level.

He also secured 14th rank in the national level science talent search examination conducted by Unified Council in January 2006. In the State level science talent search test, he stood second. Seeing his interest in computers, his parents encouraged him to do a course in SQL and Java in NIIT. They later took help from Karrox Technologies to coach him.

They deputed a full time faculty to help the 9-year-old take up Microsoft's MCSD exam. "We knew he would do it," say the parents and he came out with flying colours.

Pratyush regularly undergoes physiotherapy sessions for his medical condition. "Even though he is affected we have always put him in a regular school and he has proved his mettle," say his parents.

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