Nagpur’s Bhakti Ghatole was a mere nine year old kid when cancer robbed her eyesight. She barely saw anything in this world before she lost her eyes, but that didn’t demoralize her by any stretch of imagination and in turn gave her the confidence to do something big in her life.
Bhakti, who lost her eyesight to Retinoblastoma, a deadly eye cancer, always dreamt of becoming an IAS officer which finally came true after years of struggle and hard work and it was moment to rejoice for the entire Ghatole family at the Nagpur University as their daughter had pulled off something absolutely spectacular.
“It’s never been easy, but I have never felt incomplete. Yes, my disability could be a hurdle sometimes, but it certainly cannot stop me from pursuing my dreams. Life is beautiful and I intend to live it to the fullest,” said Bhakti.
A many would expect, her school life was never really easy and the turning point of her life came when she met her teacher cum mentor Jidnyasa Kubde, who provides computer training to all the visually impaired students through her NGO Atmadeepam Society.
“I had learnt Braille, but to be honest, I didn’t like it as much. When I learnt to use a computer, my entire world changed. Things became easier for me. Computer was like Aladdin’s Genie for me! Now I can get most of the things done by myself without anyone’s help.”
“I can write my own emails, access my social media accounts and surf the internet. I even wrote all my school exams using a computer! It was only in class 10,for the first time,that I used a writer to write my exam,” says Bhakti.
Bhakti topped SSC 10th board exams with a spectacular 94% tally and followed it up with 88% in her 12th boards. Her performances through out her college years have also been spectacular and she credits her success to her family.
We search for so many reasons to avert studies but here she is, surrounded by so many predicaments, but eventually came out strong and won the battle of life.
