Visually Impaired IIM Lucknow Student Beats all Odds to Obtain Job Offer

“The challenge in life lies in overcoming difficulties and laying a successful path for yourself,” says Paridhi Verma , a visually impaired IIM Lucknow student received the job offer. IIM Lucknow, this year has come across many reasons to celebrate. With the placement season upon them, it came as a surprise when every student got placed within three days. Adding to the joyous news is the job offer received by a visually impaired IIM Lucknow student.

The 21-year-old Paridhi Verma, IIM Lucknow Student landed a job offer at a micro-finance bank as a customary relationship executive despite her visual impairment, reports the Hindustan Times. “Yes, I have a disability,” confirms Verma, “I suffer from macular degeneration with visual impairment up to 90 per cent.”  Having this disability, however, did not hinder her faith in her own abilities.

“Normally, in an examination, one writes his/her own destiny. In my case, my destiny was in my writer’s hand. I consider myself lucky to get wholehearted support from well-wishers since childhood,” she says. Verma managed to continue her education with the help of readers and scribes to help complete her exams.

She cleared the Common Admission Test (CAT) in her first attempt. By then she had already obtained her BBA degree and had been aspiring to pursue Masters in Business Administration (MBA). She says had prepared for CAT for three months and was pleased to obtain a seat in one of the most reputed B-schools in India. She was 19 when she joined IIM Lucknow was cheered on as the youngest student of her batch.

READ Too: Dr. Neelu Rohmetra, First Woman Director In IIM History

Paridhi’s visual problems were detected when she was in class 5. By class 9, she was diagnosed with macular degeneration disease with no cure. “With 10% vision, I may have to take a slightly different path than others. Macular degeneration is a very rare disease and occurs in one in seven lakh people. It is incurable and progressive in my case,” she said.

“I was not mature enough to understand the situation then but worried to see my academic performance graph declining gradually,” she told HT. Beating all odds, however, she learnt to adapt to the situation quickly and won the under-18 state level football championship in Class 10. As an undergraduate student, she learnt to play the guitar, became part of a band and even performed at concerts as a member of professional bands, HT reports.

In her final year at college in 2015, the Rajasthan Government honoured her with the “Women of the Future Award”. She was also awarded by Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi on ‘Daughters Day’ to promote education in adversity.

While doing her summer internship with a company as part of her MBA coursework, she learnt how to believe in her own abilities, understand her strengths and areas of improvement and work towards making herself employable. “Adversity can never be a hindrance if you are determined to achieve something,” says Paridhi Verma, IIM Lucknow Student.

Hat’s Off to Paridhi Verma. Her dedication, enthusiasm and insight are really inspiring. AfterGraduation wishes you many years of great achievements!.

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