Their battle against all odds pays off

BANGALORE: Governor T N Chaturvedi on Monday felicitated seven people who have overcome odds to achieve unique goals, but have largely gone unnoticed.
The event was started a few years ago “to recognise persons not recognised by others and
encourage them to continue to play a big role in their fields.’’
The awardees were Mamatha Danawadkar, an SC student from a rural school of Tikota in Bijapur taluk who scored the highest marks in PU exams of 2003; snake catcher Mohammed Anees from Bangalore who has caught over 12,000 snakes, including poisonous ones, and released them in forests; Malini Bhandari from Kaudoor village in Udupi district who has lost the fingers of both her hands but persevered in studies and is currently in her second year degree; K.C.Manjunath of B.Kalaprahalli in Davanagere district who is blind by birth but has a first class BA degree, a vidvat degree in tabala and is currently preparing for Hindustani music and Hindi exams; Imtiaz Mohammed Kachavi from Ranebennur in Haveri district who is physically handicapped but has graduated in science, has a small areca business and strived to develop a small tricycle and used it to tour north India; N. Manjunath from Sagar in Shimoga district who is physically handicapped but is a noted light and folk music singer, poet and sportsperson, and once rescued a woman who had fallen into a well; and T. Manjula from Appenahalli in Kolar district who is physically handicapped but passed SSLC by using her feet to write and currently training in computers.