A thought-provoking and inspiring read.
Cultural Intelligence l CEO l Founder l Board Member l Trustee & Board Director l Leadership Fellow, Windsor Castle l Fellow RSA l Keynote Speaker
What if the entire education system was designed by the visually impaired, just for the visually impaired? What if books were only available in Braille? How would you learn to read? This was the argument Srikanth Bolla presented in court when as a teenager, he was told it was illegal for him to study maths and science at senior school because he is blind. So he sued an Indian state to make it possible. Bolla won that case. Changing the trajectory for all those coming behind him. After averaging 98% in his exams, Bolla decided to apply for India's prestigious engineering colleges, the IITs. But the coaching schools he approached were unwilling to accept him. Bolla then applied to universities in US instead and bagged four offers, settling for MIT in Massachusetts. He also represented India in cricket and played chess at national level. Srikanth returned to Hyderabad in 2012 and founded Bollant Industries. The packaging company manufactures eco-friendly products, such as corrugated packaging, from fallen areca palm leaves and is valued at £48m. It employs as many disabled people and those with mental health conditions as possible. All this from the boy who's father was advised to kill his son. Better dead than disabled he was told. Srikanth, Bolla's biopic is on Netflix. I highly recommend watching it as part of building your CQ knowledge about lived experiences of those different from you. Because it is society that disables people. Systems in every society are created by the privileged for the privileged. And all it takes is one brave person to break that ceiling. To create a legacy for those coming behind them.