20-Year-Old Visually Impaired Boy Clears CAT; Joins IIM Calcutta!

Shamik Banerjee

0 min read

20-Year-Old Visually Impaired Boy Clears CAT; Joins IIM Calcutta!

0 min read

Table of content:

Losing his vision in high-school
Support from friends and family
An early start to preparations

The Common Admission Test (CAT) is one of the most competitive exams in India. Students spend years preparing for this test, and still many of them fail to achieve their goals. Yet, Karan Kanakhara- a 20-year-old student with 80% blindness, has successfully cracked the exam and has also secured a seat at IIM Calcutta.

Hailing from Jamnagar in Gujarat, Karan lost his vision when he was standard eighth. However, despite his challenging disability, he never allowed despair to take over and diligently prepared for the CAT exam. The fruits of his labor are now visible to everyone today.

Also read: "I Scored 99.97 Percentile In CAT, Yet I Can't Get A Seat In IIM ABC"; Why Does This Happen? Is It Unjust?

Losing his vision in high-school

When Karan was in class 8, he was diagnosed with a disease called Retinitis Pigmentosa due to which he slowly started losing his vision. It was a highly challenging situation but Karan was adapting quite well. In fact, when he appeared for the class 10th board exam, he did so as a normal student.

However, by the time he was in class 12th, he had lost his vision to such an extent that he was allowed to appear for the exam in the PWD category. A good student all through his life, not only cracked the 12th exam with flying colors but also topped it with 99 percent marks.

Coming under the PWD category, Karan was allowed a little more time and a torchlight while taking the exam. Currently, Karan only has 20% vision, and yet he is ready to take the world of business by storm after graduating from IIM Calcutta.

Support from friends and family

Karan’s father used to run an ice cream parlor in Jamnagar. However, recognizing the talent in his son, he decided to sell the property and move to the main city of Ahmedabad. The move to Ahmedabad was made so that Karan can get proper guidance to pursue further studies and it worked out wonderfully well in the long run.

Due to the fact that Karan lost his vision midway through his school life, he had to change the way in which he studied. From study materials in print, Karan had to now switch to audio study materials. Luckily, he had his mother by his side all the time, who would prepare audio study materials for him so that the process can become easier.

“With their support, I changed my learning style. I started listening more than reading the study material and tried to memorize it. While I prepared the audio study materials, I should mention about my mother, who especially prepared a great deal of audio study materials for me,” Karan told a leading news portal.

An early start to preparations

Karan had no light in his eyes but with open eyes, he dreamed of joining one of the IIMs. To fulfill his dream, he started preparing for the CAT exam in the first year of his graduation itself. However, with the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic followed by worldwide lockdowns, Karan faced a lot of difficulties as the classes started going online.

For starters, he had to appear for online exams and with social distancing norms, it was difficult for him to find a writer. In order to meet the challenge, Karan used to study by bringing the mobile screen very close to his eyes. Karan’s college also came to his aide and principal Sanjay Vakil and teacher Chetan Mewada, among others, were mentioned by Karan.

Also read: How to prepare for CAT in 3 months or less and get 99+ percentile

Karan also got a lot of help from friends in his preparation for the CAT exam. Two of his friends- Harshit and Dev would read the entire syllabus and narrate it to Karan. These three friends used to study together for about 8 hours every day.

On Wednesday, Karan got the fruits of his hard work, dedication, and patience. He got an acceptance letter from IIM Calcutta. Karan considers Shrikant Bolla, the world's first blind student of Management Science, as his role model. He has made one quote by Shrikant his motto, “You have to be more focused in life than having a vision”.