A real winner is one who sets his/her goal and fights for it and that’s what 21-year-old Prachi Sukhwani did to get the admission in one of the world’s top management institutes, Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIM-A).
Prachi, a Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) student at Gujarat’s Maharaja Sayajirao University’s Faculty of Commerce, fought with her constantly fading vision and managed to get the admission at IIM-A by cracking the Common Admission Test (CAT). Prachi scored 98.55 percentile in CAT 2016 in which she had appeared as a person with a disability.
Prachi suffers from a rare disease, Macular Dystrophy also known as Retinal Degradation. There is no treatment for this rare form of genetic disorder.
Prachi was first diagnosed with the disease, when she was in class III and over the year over 80% of her vision is lost.
Speaking about her career programs, Prachi said “my short term goal is to join a multinational company. Once I get some experience, I will have my own start-up. But my long-term goal is to open an NGO for the blind.”
Prachi’s father Suresh Sukhwani, explained about his daughters will power and how she managed to crack CAT. He said, for 15 years she was regularly taken to Chennai where doctors advised her to wear special reading glasses. Suresh runs a garment business.
He further said, “even with those glasses on, she was engrossed in studies. After all the hard work she got calls from all the top three IIMs, IIM-Ahmedabad, IIM-Bangalore and IIM-Kolkata, and appeared for the interviews.”
While Prachi’s mother Kanchan is a homemaker and also works as a LIC agent. Her elder sister Nishita, too completed her BBA from MSU, and is pursuing MBA from a Mumbai-based private college.
The Dean of Faculty of Commerce, Professor Sharad Bansal applauded Prachi’s dedication. He said, “this is one of the proudest moments. Prachi deserves special applause for her success despite all odds. Her success is an inspiration for everybody.”
