CHENNAI: Dyslexia. That’s a word BT Vigneshwaran of Bhavan’s Rajaji Vidhyashram, Kilpauk, detested till about 24 hours ago. But now, he seems to have come to terms with it. So much so that he doesn’t mind letting the world know he is a dyslexic person.
“Even the closest of my friends do not know I have dyslexia,” said the 18-year-old, who has scored a remarkable 477 out of 500 in the CBSE Class XII board exams. The Commerce student, who is among the three from Chennai to score over 94 per cent in the special category, said he was apprehensive of letting people know he had the ‘learning disorder’. “People tend to look down upon those who have dyslexia.That’s why I did not reveal it to anyone,” explains the jubilant lad, who has scored 93, 91, 95, 96 and 96 in English, Economics, Business Studies, Accounts and Mathematics, respectively.
It was not until Vigneshwaran was in X that he got to know of his condition. “I experienced some issues with coordination and realised that the way I wrote was different. Which is when I got to know I was dyslexic,” he recounted, hastening to add that he had been scoring not more than 40 per cent marks till XI.
So, did he have to put in extra effort this time? “I studied for two hours a day and played for four to six hours on an average during the preparatory holidays. I never expected to score this much,” he exclaimed. “But I did put in a lot of hard work just before the exams. I had a good friend who sat with me throughout. I studied for almost six hours a day before the exams,” he added.
Studies and marks apart, Vigneshwaran, who aspires to take over his father’s business once he is done with his Bachelors, is interested in playing badminton. In fact, he had represented his school in the CBSE cluster badminton tournament. “This is not something that I would want to do away with. I would continue to focus on badminton too,” he tells us, signing off with a smile.