The first from his family to attend college, K Manoranjan Nayak had to travel several kilometres from his village Upperkatinga in the Koraput district of Orissa to Malkangiri everyday for his classes. Despite the toil, he seldom missed classes even though he couldn’t hear the classroom lectures. Being hearing impaired by birth was never a handicap for 26-year-old Nayak who later made it to Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) here as a sociology student.

Coming from the poverty-stricken Kalahandi-Bolangir-Koraput region of Orissa, Nayak, the son of a forest guard, had learnt not to give up easily. Last week, his constant efforts towards a better life earned him another laurel when he made it to the Civil Services in the Physically Handicapped Category. “When I enrolled in JNU five years ago as a postgraduate student, I was the only one with a hearing impairment. It didn’t bother me,” he says, in reply to a question passed to him on a piece of paper.

That is how he appeared for his final interviews for the Civil Services as well. “There was a computer on which questions were typed for me and I read them and answered,” he explains.

In the classes at JNU, Nayak would quietly take notes and later write questions for the teachers to answer. “Three professors at my centre helped me immensely with written notes in response to my questions,” he says.

His friend and senior research student at JNU, Netajee Abhinandan, says Nayak never let his handicap come in the way. “You’ll always find him smiling. He participates in sports and other extra-curricular activities and never lets himself be sidelined in any group,” he says.

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