Vinayak Sreedhar was a Class 10 student of Amity International School in Noida. (Representational)
A Class 10 student of Amity International School in Noida, Vinayak Sreedhar, idolised Stephen Hawking, aspired to be an astronaut and wanted to top the CBSE board examinations this year. However, he died in March before he could write his last two exams.
As the class 10 Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) examination results were announced yesterday, it was found that Vinayak Sreedhar scored 100 in English, 96 in Science and 97 in Sanskrit.
Sreedhar was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy when he was a two-year-old. Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a genetic disorder characterised by progressive muscle degeneration and weakness. It is caused due to the absence of dystrophin, a protein that helps keep muscle cells intact.
The student had appeared for the exams under the general category and not the Children With Special Need (CWSN) category.
"His muscular movement was very limited. He could write slowly but since there is a time duration for exams, he used a scribe to write English and Science exam. For Sanskrit, he insisted to write himself. His body movement was restricted and he was wheelchair-bound, but his mind was very sharp and aspirations very high," Mamta Sreedhar, his mother, said.
"He would always say I want to become an astronaut despite all the challenges and would say if Stephen Hawkings could go to Oxford and make a name in Cosmology I can go to space too. He was confident that he will be among top rankers. We were always amazed with his confidence and would encourage him further," she added.
Legendary British theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking also suffered from a motor neurone disease.
Sreedhar had plans to visit Rameswaram temple near Kanyakumari, after his exams were over.
"We are today in Rameshwaram and are going for darshan in the evening. It was his unfulfilled wish so we decided to not postpone the plans and do it for him," his mother said.