Visually challenged Bihar boy with extraordinary talent

Barely eight years old, but he calculates faster than a calculator. Meet the wonder boy from Bihar, who is visually challenged but is known as a mini-computer.
“What was the day on October 31, 1984? Or, for that matter, what would be the day on November 30, 2017?”

If you want to know the exact day, but don’t know whom to consult, then ask Pratyush. Within seconds, you will have the answer.

Born in 2006 in an impoverished family of Tehta block in Bihar’s Jehanabad district, Pratyush studies in a New Delhi-based school meant exclusively for the visually challenged children. It’s not that he was born blind. He initially had some problems with his eyesight. But by 2008, he almost lost his vision.

Today, he is a Class III student of JPN Senior Secondary School for Blind in New Delhi where even his peers vouch about his high-level IQ. His razor-sharp mind was put to test when an organisation invited him to Patna and asked him numerous questions about the day way back or about the day some 20 years from now. The boy did not bat an eyelid before giving all the answers within
seconds. Later, all the answers were found to be correct.

“If you ask him to name all the railway stations between New Delhi and Patna, he will tell you about every station in a chronological order,” his father Nandkishore Giri, a small-time vendor, who sells cosmetics, told Deccan Herald.

“So when did he come to know about the rare ability of this God-gifted child?” “It was around two years back when I was returning from New Delhi after
getting him admitted to the school. Pratyush then asked me: “Papa when will you visit next to take me back? As I muttered some date, he immediately
calculated and said, Ok, it will be Thursday. Later, I found he was correct.

Then, just to cross-check his mental ability, I asked him about some other dates. He immediately calculated and within
seconds gave the correct answers. It was then that I realised that my child could be visually challenged but he had some extraordinary qualities,” said the proud father Nandkishore.

“If he listens to something, it is recorded in his brain. It’s against this backdrop that he can name all the
stations between Patna to Delhi. Give him a sum to calculate. He will solve it within seconds without using pen or
paper,” Nandkishore sheds more light on his son’s qualities.

When did he realise that his son was having vision problem? “When Pratyush was born on September 28, 2006 at Saren Math village near Tehta station, he was found to be a healthy baby. Since 2008, he developed eye-sight problem. Several eye specialists were consulted. It was found to be a case of retina detachment.

We went to Patna Medical College and Hospital and Nalanda Medical
College and Hospital. Pratyush was then referred to All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi where the boy was operated upon on February 4, 2009.

Post-operation, he lost whatever little visibility he had. We then went to Shankar Netralaya, Chennai, following which nearly 10 per cent of his visibility was restored.
But since August 1 this year, Pratyush has lost complete vision. Doctors have told me he won’t ever be able to see the world again as eye transplant was also not possible in his case,” said the distraught father.

Pratyush, being the youngest sibling, is close to his father. But he gets
annoyed on two occasions: First, when he is asked about how he calculates so fast. And secondly, when he is asked about his blind school.

“Ask him anything except these
two questions,” his father cautions.Is Pratyush afflicted with savant syndrome, a condition in which a person demonstrates profound and prodigious capacities or abilities far in excess of what would be considered normal.

It could be from birth and evident during early childhood or could develop later in life? Nandkishore feigns ignorance about it. Nor he is ready to admit that it’s a God’s gift that his son is showing such IQ level.

“It’s all a matter of concentration. Many people are aware of my son’s ability. Many of them praise him a lot. But not one person has, so far, come forward to extend a helping hand so that an
optimum utilisation could be made of my son’s talent. If the state government
extends a helping hand, Pratyush’s

future may shape well,” said Nandkishore hoping against hope that since
Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi belongs to his neighbouring district Gaya, some day he may pay attention
towards the wonder boy.
Abhay Kumar in Gaya