Blind Entrepreneur!

Disability of any kind is a curse. True indeed! But not when the person is ready to fight for his dreams. Here is a story of a boy from Andhra Pradesh, who was born blind. Srikanth Bolla, had his flair for science subjects, was not accepted into 12th,then the IIT’s for being blind. Fro their he went to study into MIT and from there today he has his own company. The turnover of this company last year was Rs. 150 crores.

Srikanth is the CEO of Hyderabad-based Bollant Industries, an organisation that employs uneducated and disabled employees to manufacture eco-friendly, disposable consumer packaging solutions. He considers himself the luckiest man alive, not because he is now a millionaire, but because his uneducated parents, who earned Rs 20,000 a year, did not heed any of the 'advice' they received and raised him with love and affection. “They are the richest people I know,” says Srikanth.

When Srikanth was born, his parents were earning a meagre income of around 25000 rs a year from farming. With no food, now the family had a blind child. The relatives and people advised his parents to kill the child because he will be of no help in their old age. Time passed and his father started taking him to farm but due to blindness he was unable to perform any given task. At this point his father thought that maybe Srikanth will do good in studies. He was admitted to the nearest school which was 5 km away. After covering this distance with help of stick, in school he was seen differently. He was not allowed to take part in some of the classes and was always made to sit on last bench. He had no friends. During this time Srikanth says that he felt the most forlorn person living. His father then took a decision which changed the course of his life. He admitted him in a special school for blind. Here Srikanth’s performance graph started going upwards. He learnt chess and cricket, and then went to play at national level in blind cricket. He then became part of APJ Abdul Kalam’s Lead programme. He completed his 10th with 90%. Thereafter, he was rejected for taking science as stream for 12th because he was blind. He alone protested against this decision and government had to give him special permission to study science. He scored 98% in 12th Andhra Pradesh State Board.

After this he applied to the IITs ,they said you are blind we won’t take you. Shrikanth replied to hell with you and applied for some foreign universities and went to MIT as the first international blind student. After his graduation he had many offers to work in America, but his heart lied in India and her people. He came back to uplift and motivate handicapped people like him. His vision was to put the “useless” people back in the mainstearm.

“Many questions bothered me. Why should a disabled child be pushed to the back row in the class? Why should the 10 percent of the disabled population of India be left out of the Indian economy? Why can’t they make a living like everyone else with dignity?”

He decided to give up the ‘golden’ opportunity in corporate America and came back to India in search of answers to his questions. He set up a support service platform to rehabilitate, nurture and integrate differently-abled people in society. “We helped about 3000 students in acquiring an education and vocational rehabilitation. But then I thought what about their employment? So I built this company and now employ 150 differently-abled people.”

Today, Srikanth has four production plants, one each in Hubli (Karnataka) and Nizamabad (Telangana), and two in Hyderabad (Telangana). Another plant, which will be one hundred percent solar operated, is coming up in Sri City, an integrated business city in Andhra Pradesh, 55 kms from Chennai.

The story of Srikanth is not just inspiring, but also a slap in the face of our education system and the mentality of people where people are judged on the basis of their physical appearances. Now, this success story is not just about having a right mindset but of having loving parents and right mentors. Srikanth is not a person; he is a change in the world. He is someone who teaches us to believe in life, to believe in self, and to believe in our own goals. If we have the will to chase our dreams, even the most difficult storms will pass. All we need is faith in ourselves.