How these Karkala siblings fought poverty, disability to clear PU Board exams

Manjunath K | coastaldigest.com
May 4, 2018

Fighting the odds of disability and poverty, Prajwal and Pratheeksha, the siblings from Borgalgudde in Nitte village of Karkala in Udupi district on April 30 cleared the Pre-University exam. While the 22-year-old Prajwal and 19-year-old Pratheeksha secured 51% and 49% respectively in the arts stream, they claimed disappointment that they could not secure 70 per cent similar to their matriculation results.

"They have passed their test that is a big achievement for all of us. First class, second class does not matter, my children cleared the test, they can pursuit their dreams now," Shekar Salian, their father said with a sense of relief.

For over two-days now, Prajwal and Pratheeksha who are generally reserved and shy are quite overwhelmed by the repeated calls and congratulatory messages from relatives and friends. The siblings who since childhood are unable to walk due to a genetic disorder generally stay at home and have limited interaction with outsiders. So you see, it takes more time for them to interact with people, their 47-year old father adds. The duo simply shy away while being talked for interview by this reporter.

For these home-tutored pupils, it was not just the 'test' that came with challenges, but the whole concept of adapting to the examination environment. So the siblings claimed that they were intimidated by the presence of so many other children, besides invigilation squad, and stringent environment.

Prajwal and Pratheeksha had to discontinue their regular schooling from 8th standard, as their parents could not arrange for their transport. "We could not afford those things. Few years ago I had to quit my job due to health and my wife Jyothi Salian rolls beedis. Since our financial condition is a bit tough, we are trying to make ends meet," the 47-year old Salian said. For the last several years, these students are being taught at home by teachers Ganesh, Akshatha and Rajani for seven-hours a day.

While Ganesh taught Economics, English and Political Science, Akshata and Rajani taught Kannada, History and other subjects. The teachers give prominence to writing than the oral.

This year at the PU board, things took a critical turn for Prajwal and Pratheeksha, after the examination department disallowed Prajwal and Pratheeksha to be accompanied by the ‘Assistance writers’ of their choice. "We don't blame the system. But during the matriculation their regular tutors were allowed to write for them. But this time the PU board was stringent with condition. Our plea that the kids have communication issue with new people, especially Prajwal - who stammers, did not gain any us favor," Salian said. Moreover, the PU board had laid an additional rider that the 'assistants' must be at-least a year junior in their academics and they cannot be from Arts background.

The family had a tough time looking for the right candidates, as most of the students had just finished their own exam and were fatigued. The parents wandered to several colleges and their relatives but their requests were turned-down or faced a dead-end.

Highlighting the plight of the family Suvarna News 24/7, a Kannada TV channel, even relayed a public appeal, even local government represented the family but the Board did not change the rules. Finally, two students a boy and a Muslim girl from the neighbourhood agreed. "To avoid confusion, we initially told the family that besides giving them best wishes we won’t be able to financially compensate them," Jyothi says.

For over a week, the children about an hour spend an hour each with Prajwal and Pratheeksha to understand their language and expression. Ultimately, things sailed smoothly for the candidates in the test

While the children will continue to pursuit degree education in Arts stream, the family is looking for physiotherapy and other treatment to enable them to live their life independently. "Both our children are highly intelligent and we are certain that they can do something in life. But we do not want them to be confined to a wheel-chair for the rest of their life, for which we are making our best effort.

In a heart-warming gesture the local community in Borgalgudde have raised a sum of Rs 11 lakh through Samaritans and friends from social media for the future of these children. "Most of them tell me that I should enroll them in computer courses, so that they can be self-sustainable. Let’s see, what my kids want," Jyothi says.

Comments

Abdul Rahman
 - 
Thursday, 10 May 2018

Well Done Really Great Thousands of Congratulations Keep it up

Abdul Rahman
 - 
Thursday, 10 May 2018

Weldone Really great!!!!  Thousands of Congratulation.

Mohammed zahoor
 - 
Sunday, 6 May 2018

congrats.. well done...all the best

ABDUL JALEEL
 - 
Saturday, 5 May 2018

God bless you and guide you

 

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News Network
March 28,2020

Bengaluru, Mar 28: Sun Tsu, in 'The Art of War' speaks of a skilful general who can subdue his enemy without any fighting. This constitutes the ultimate triumph which is referred to as stratagem. Today, we would need one such when we are faced with the '21-day corona challenge' for India.
Nearly four weeks back, Dr Jyothsna Rao, Dr Gururaj Rao and I sat across the OPD in the afternoon at HCG Bengaluru discussing our ongoing cancer immunology research. While on this topic, we drifted into the discussion on the coronavirus. During this engaging discussion, we wondered the similarity of the enigma between the virus and cancer. I paused to ask Dr Jyothsna and Dr Guru - how we wish we could do something against this virus.
Dr Jyothsna is a PhD from NCBS and had worked under Dr Ralph Steinman, physician and researcher from Rockefeller University, who won the Nobel Prize for his discovery of the dendritic cell and its role in adaptive immunity in 2011. Dr Gururaj is a molecular and cell biologist who did his PhD at the Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina and is the Director of iCrest.
Jyothsna while hearing our perplexing conversation on the covid intervened, "Yes, surely. I think we should take a break from cancer and focus on the innate and adaptive immunity role in COVID-19."
Thus began this sincere attempt to relook the human immune system from the eyes of the COVID-19.
We have 10 types of immune cells at the least which are widely dispersed in millions across the body. When our body is invaded by a foreign organism (bacteria, fungi or virus), these cells work with each other to destroy the invader.
Now, the question is - how do the immune cells talk to each other? They use small-molecule substances called cytokines (cyto means cells; kine means movement). There are many cytokines that are involved in work on the immune system. The most relevant for viruses are interferons.
Interferons (IFN) as the name reflects have an ability to interfere with the viral activity and stop their multiplication. These specialised signal proteins are released by our cells in response to a viral attack to forewarn other cells. They help build the antiviral proteins within the cells to kill the virus as it tries to invade the new cells.
Historically, interferons are a group of cytokines known to be potent antiviral agents against viruses and a hallmark cytokine induced by the host upon viral infections. Interferons possess unique immunoregulatory activities and are signature cytokines released by (TH1) T immune cells, which are crucial in viral infections.
As the outbreak of COVID-19 grapples us, an urgent need for finding strategies to combat the virus is growing. Coronaviruses (CoVs) are a group of RNA viruses. In patients infected with coronavirus, it was indicated that the activation of the IFN does not occur until 48 hours post-infection. Thus the delayed IFN-related antiviral response by the healthy cells leads to coronavirus evade the immune response.
Numerous studies have presented the success in defeating CoVs by the direct administration of IFNs. In a combination as a concoction, it was shown to synergistically inhibit the virus replication in vitro.
Moreover, it is understood that the earlier induction of IFNs in children although they have a less developed immune system could be the reason behind the children being least affected.
The key to success in reducing the disease fatality might be the stimulation of the immune responses to trigger IFN production at the very early stages of the disease, which might be done through the administration of IFN. Despite the evidence for the efficacy of IFNs in treating CoV-induced infections, the proper dosing and ideal timing for such interventions needs to be verified in clinical trials.
For the later stages of the diseases in advance stages where patients are on ventilator and have developed respiratory distress, we propose to utilise the mesenchymal cells derived from donor bone marrow that have been known to treat acute respiratory syndrome. Mesenchymal cells are known to possess anti-inflammatory activity and thus used often in autoimmune diseases.
With this scientific background, we have activated T cells from healthy donors, in a cGMP facility at iCrest - HCG hospital with an enriched cocktail of cytokines rich in Interferons. Injections of this cocktail we believe will result in a surge of cytokines in the body of the infected person and will boost his ability to fight the virus in the early phases. We are in the initial phases of this study and hope to be ready in the coming weeks with meaningful data on its potential utility.
Currently, it awaits government approvals (Union and state) and we have applied to central drugs authority for their initial evaluation and further directions.
As my Guru often expounded the philosophy of 'Seva' - the goal of education is knowledge, the end goal of knowledge is service. In this attempt to serve our fellow humans at this brink of unprecedented crisis, medical fraternity stands with you and promises to do our best for your safety.
We assure to exhaust every bit of our spirit in this fight against coronavirus. We have lost the sight of shores and travelled thus far, but that is the mandatory first step to cross the ocean. Are we going to succeed in this battle, is something only time will answer. 

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News Network
February 14,2020

Bengaluru, Feb 14: After the swearing-in of ten former JDS and Congress MLAs, political boundaries seem to have become more fluid, with little clarity on who is on whose side. When Honnali BJP MLA Renukacharya visited senior Congressman DK Shivakumar at the latter’s residence, many eyebrows were raised over the reason behind the meeting. There was speculation over why Renukacharya would be meeting a man who is, in all likelihood, slated to be the next KPCC president.

Renukacharya reacted to the rumours by making the meet sound purely professional. He said, “We have a three-day Krushi Sammlan in Honnali, and I went to invite him (DKS) for it.’’   Shivakumar also remained tight-lipped over the real reason behind the meeting, and corroborated Renukacharya’s story. However, insiders claim that the two discussed other issues too. It may be recalled that Renukacharya had openly rebelled against Yediyurappa in 2009.

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coastaldigest.com web desk
July 13,2020

Mangaluru, July 13: A week-long lockdown will be imposed in Dakshina Kannada from the night of July 15, according to district in-charge minister Kota Srinivas Poojary.

The decision was taken in a meeting of elected representatives in the presence of Deputy Commissioner Sindhu B Rupesh. The DC is expected to issue guidelines for the lockdown soon. 

In a video message, Poojary said that during the video conference, chief minister B S Yediyurappa asked the administrations and elected representatives of the respective district to take a call on re-imposing lockdown to check the mounting coronavirus cases. 

“We have decided to impose a week-long lockdown from the night of July 15. Hence, people should buy all necessary things for a week before the beginning of lockdown,” he Mr Poojary. 

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