For Prasad, disability is no bar to reaching the top

He's topped his school in a major board exam. Now it's time to master the English language, read the latest Harry Potter and get to grips with the intricacies of an age old style of music....

When 15-year-old Prasad Nagesh Ghadi scored 86 per cent marks in the Standard X Secondary School Certificate exam, his joy knew no bounds. For his parents, it was confirmation that despite Prasad's obvious disability - the teen is confined to a wheelchair - their son was normal like other children. In this case, so normal he scored the highest marks in school.

Ever since the results were announced on Monday, Prasad's home has been inundated with congratulatory calls from friends, relatives and well-wishers who have seen him grow into an exceptional, talented youngster shining in academics as well as music despite all the odds against him.

"We were distressed when he was born with a serious disability and were always anxious during his growing years when doctors told us Prasad will never walk," says his father Nagesh Arjun Ghadi, a security guard working at the Nair Hospital run by the civic body.

He has been working nights for the last 12 years so that he could care for his son during the day whilst his wife Sharayu works at her day job as a school teacher.

At their simple flat in Mumbai Central, Ghadi talks of how his young son suffered from spinal muscular atrophy which attacks one in 100,000 people.

"His spine is shaped like an S," he said, showing an X-Ray of his son's spine when he was little. "His limbs have little strength and he has to be either carried or moved around in a wheel chair everywhere."

Prasad says he manages to brush his own teeth but depends on his parents for all other daily chores. According to his father, "Doctors say any surgery would only worsen his condition and nothing much can be done about his 100 per cent disability."

If this may sound depressing one has to only talk to the chatty young lad to realise how he has taken life in his stride and enjoys meeeting life head on - be it his books, music and painting, all tackled with equal gusto.

He has no complaints except that writing for long can be painful and so he had to get someone else to write for him during his Std X exams whilst he dictated all the answers.

"Fifty per cent of the credit should go to Nivruti Sangpal, a ninth standard student from Sardar High School who could maintain both speed and a clear handwriting during my exams," says Prasad.

After studying up to Standard VII in a school for the disabled, he shifted to Bhau Saheb Hiray Vidyalaya in Tardeo, where he studied all the subjects like any normal child though he did not take up English as he was concentrating on classical music.

He now wants to study English more seriously, one of the reasons being to read Harry Potter in the original rather than in Marathi.

Studying further is not practical for Prasad and therefore music is the focus now. "Music and painting is like medicine for him," says his mother Sharayu.

He has been performing regularly in public concerts and has won accolades for his mastery of Hindusthani classical music, as one can see from a shelf full of trophies and gifts in his balcony converted into a comfortable work place for him to paint, read and play games on the computer.

Prasad loves to talk about the Balshree Award that he received from the National Bal Bhavan in Delhi in 2000 for Creative Performance. "There, I met some wonderful children who I still keep in touch with, especially Neil Mathews, a topper from Sharjah, who took me everywhere, pushing my wheel chair around."