This is an inspirational story, where a student faced unimaginable hardships and faced them all in spite of his physical handicap to end up as an engineer in Google. Read on. It’s bound to inspire you for sure.
Naga Naresh Karutura is special. His parents are illiterate. He has no legs and moves around in his powered wheelchair. But this doesn’t stop him; instead, he enjoys and appreciates his life to the fullest.
Naresh was not always a handicap. No, that happened when he was seven years old. He fell from a lorry and survived the surgery only to have gangrene set in and had to have his legs amputated.
Naresh reflects, “I don’t think my life changed dramatically after I lost both my legs. Because all at home were doting on me, I was enjoying all the attention rather than pitying myself. I was happy that I got a lot of fruits and biscuits.”
In spite of losing his legs, Naresh maintained his positive attitude, saying, “I believe in God. I believe in destiny. I feel he plans everything for you.”
Even when his home was flooded and he moved from the only village he’d known his entire life. It opened the door for continued education. He even volunteered at the nearby Missionary to help others learn. Until finally, his studies landed him at IIT in Madras where he studied Computer Science.
Naresh remembers, “I evolved as a person at IIT, both academically and personally. It has been a great experience studying here. The people I was interacting with were so brilliant that I felt privileged to sit along with them in the class. Just by speaking to my lab mates, I gained a lot.
More importantly, Naresh feels blessed. He says, “I get help from total strangers without me asking for it. My IIT education was paid in full. My school became handicap friendly allowing me independence and freedom.”
He goes on, “Do you know what my life has taught me? If you are motivated and show some initiative, there will be people around you always willing to help.”
While there are bad people in this world, Naresh knows the good outweighs the bad. Just as importantly, he wants to you find inspiration from his life, because no matter what obstacles or adversities you face – you can still make things better. You can achieve anything you set your mind to.
