The Hindu : National : Cerebral palsy could not retard child poet Ajisha from Kerala

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Feb 06, 2009
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

National

National

Cerebral palsy could not retard child poet Ajisha from Kerala

Sandeep Joshi

This national award winner has composed 600 poems

Photo: V.V.Krishnan

UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi presents the National Child Award for exceptional achievement and a Gold Medal to Pratyush Nigam for his excellence in computing despite a rare genetic disorder, in New Delhi on Thursday. Looking on are Union Minister for Women and Child Development Renuka Chowdhury and Communications Minister A. Raja. —

NEW DELHI: India’s exceptionally talented children, who were honoured with national awards here on Thursday, included the world’s youngest web designer, two Guinness record holders, a Microsoft Certified Solutions Developer, an extraordinary sportsperson, artistes and budding scientists.

Fifteen-year-old Pratyush Nigam from Hyderabad, despite suffering from a rare genetic disorder — spinal muscular atrophy — is a computer wizard. He became a Microsoft Certified Solutions Developer when he was just nine.

Sreelakshmi Suresh (10), from Kozikode in Kerala, is the world’s youngest web designer. Sreelakshmi achieved this feat when she designed her school’s website at eight. She is not only a member of the Association of American Webmasters but also brand ambassador of some IT companies.

Her extraordinary skills in web designing have also helped her win several national and international awards.

Similarly, Nischal Narayanam (13), the child prodigy from Hyderabad, is the youngest world record holder in the Guinness Book of World Records for memorising the most random objects. Nischal, who mastered the slokas of Ramayana and Bhagvad Gita when he turned five, is also credited with being the youngest author.

He has written six volumes on mathematics at the primary level. He has also mastered the ancient Hindu art of ‘Avadhanam’ in mathematics.

Another extraordinary kid who bagged the national award is S. Ajisha (13) from Kollam in Kerala who, despite being afflicted with cerebral palsy and who could not get formal education, has written a collection of 600 poems, some of which have been widely published and reviewed by newspapers and magazines.

Youngest awardee

The youngest awardee of the day was five-year-old Muhammed Shammaz Abbas from Mangalore, Karnataka, who can recite long verses from the Holy Koran. He has also memorised capitals of almost all the nations and can recognise their flags too.

Another child prodigy Kishan Shirkanth (13), from Bangalore, is included in the Guinness Book of World Records as “the youngest director of a professionally made full length feature film.” Kishan directed “Care of Footpath” when he was nine to inspire underprivileged children to go to school. He has acted in over 30 feature films and various TV serials.

He is not even 16, but Yudhvir Mann from Haryana is an extraordinary sportsman who has so far won 82 gold medals and 20 championships in national and state-level competitions in roller skating and roll ball.

Tanmay Vishnudas Prabhu Gaonkar(15), a budding scientist, has won laurels nationally for his project “Use of aluminium waste to make light weight concrete.”

Corrections and Clarifications

The heading of a report "Cerebral palsy could not retard child poet Ajisha from Kerala" (February 6, 2009) should have been "Cerebral palsy could not stop child poet Ajisha from Kerala". Perhaps the idea was to associate cerebral palsy with being mentally retarded or challenged. The Spastics Society of India/"Vidya Sagar" says that all children with cerebral palsy are not mentally challenged. Cognitively they are high/intelligent. At the same time, there are children with cerebral palsy who are mentally challenged.)

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National