Visually impaired girl lights up ICSE results with 94% marks

Time of India

30-04-2025

Lucknow: Ruk jana nahin tu kahin haar ke, kaanton pe chalke milenge saaye bahaar ke.
It was this inspirational song from the 1974 movie 'Imtihan' that kept visually impaired
Baani Chawla
motivated during her ICSE preparation. And the fruits of labour were visible on Wednesday when the Class 10 girl scored 94% marks in her imtihan.
Baani, also a talented singer, is visually impaired since birth. The Lucknow girl has performed in more than 1,000 musical stage shows across the country. If one is hardworking then complaining about one's physical constraints is merely an excuse, says the student of
Lucknow Public College
, Jankipuram, who aspires to become a civil servant.
"I was confident of a good score. Studies are my only enjoyment and music my stress buster. Of all the subjects, I found it challenging to let my scribe write mathematics and physics because while dictating the answers I would often get mental calculations wrong," said the eleated girl who will now pursue humanities. Asked about the success mantra, she said it was thorough revision of every chapter until all concepts were clear."Baani has been a fighter since birth. We had premature twins but we lost one of them. Baani was put on ventilator for 1.5 months after birth; she fought and survived. But unfortunately she suffered from Retinopathy of Prematurity and lost vision in eyes," said Baani's father Vishal Chawla, who is into construction business.
"My wife Shweta and I always knew that our daughter could turn the impossible into possible through her grit and diligence. We got her admitted to Lucknow Public College. With the support of the school, she used to attend classes, and then her mother, her younger sister Guneet and her tutor Anju Mishra used to read text to help her memorise subjects. The National Association for the Blind in Indiranagar also guided us on how to teach her," shared Vishal.
"This is not the first time she has surprised us with her excellence. She is gifted with a beautiful voice. She became interested in music from the age of three. We got her a keyboard and without any formal training, she began doing stage shows at the age of 8. She has won over 100 awards and has even been felicitated by Governor Anandiben Patel," said the proud father.
Though overwhelmed with their daughter's academic feat, Baani's parents profusely thanked her paper writer Ridhima Sharma, a Class 9 student, calling her an angel, who agreed to write the examination for Baani. Vishal said the biggest challenge for them to find a scribe as parents usually don't allow their wards to be a writer since they have to write for over 4 hours for students like Baani, as the board gives extra 90 minutes to specially-abled students. But Ridhima did it for us, after writing her Class 9 exams she would write pre-board and then board examinations of Baani, said Vishal.