rajkot to bell the cat is one thing but to bell the cat blindfolded in a darkroom takes the level of success to a much higher plane something that visually impaired karan kanakhara who not only cracked the test but also secured a seat in iim calcutta is savouring at the momentthe inspiration for the 20 yearold not to give in to desperation and beat the odds started quite early in class 8 when retinitis pigmentosa rp an inherited disease started to rob him of his eyesight graduallybut the native of jamnagar hung on to hope and his firm belief in the adage winners dont do different things they do things differentlyaccording to karan this quote sprung him back every time life pushed him towards disappointmentcurrently with just 20 per cent vision as he prepares to face the challenges of a management life karan is grateful for the unstinting support of his parents jitendra and puja kanakhara and his elder sister shraddha besides his teacher illaba sodha who helped him dispel any doubt he had about achieving his goalswith their support i changed my learning style i started listening more than reading the study material and tried to memorize it while i prepared audio study materials i should mention about my mother who especially prepared a great deal of audio study material for me karan told toikaran appeared for his ssc exam as a normal student but his difficulty in seeing increased thereafter he then appeared for the hsc exam under person with disability pwd category in which he was allowed some more time to write the paper and also allowed to carry a separate light in the examination hall karan scored 99 percentile in both the board examsfather jitendra kanakhara had an ice cream parlour in jamnagar but recognizing his sons talent he sold off the property there and the family shifted to ahmedabad to support karan in his further studiesfrom the first year of his graduation karan kanakhara started preparing for cat as he always nurtured a dream to study at an iim however during the pandemic karan not only found it difficult to find a writer but he also had to sit for online exams he accepted the challenge and kept the mobile screen close to his eyes while appearing in the exams karan received huge support in the college from his principal sanjay vakil prof chetan mewada and many othersi took the cat last year on wednesday i got an offer letter from iim calcutta for mba admission i will have to join from next month my dream has finally come true i want to specialize in marketing said karanwith inputs from kiritsinh zala