Hyderabad: In an inspiring story from Telangana, a woman brought up an abandoned visually challenged girl, who has now occupied a top post at a leading financial organization in New York in the US. Shalini Menon was three-months-old when she landed up in an orphanage after her mother abandoned her.
Nirmala, who had three children of her own to look after, adopted Shalini and brought her up like her own child. Nirmala also learned Braille for Shalini through the special courses offered at Hadley School of America. Nirmala made sure that Shalini is well-exposed to modern technology and arranged special classes for her so that she can have an apt understanding of subjects like maths and sciences. She also arranged special braille textbooks for Shalini so that calculations and science are easy and understandable for her.
Besides formal education, Nirmala also taught Shalini songs and music to make her adept at co-curricular activities as well. After completing her schooling, Shalini was admitted to Mallya Aditi International School in Bangalore, where she managed to score 100% marks on the SAT exams. Later, she received a scholarship to study at Amherst College in America in 2013.
Shalini, who completed her degree in Maths and Economics in America, joined the Human Computing Lab in Colorado as a manager. Having the opportunity to work with Ph.D. students and researchers there, she quickly achieved her goal of becoming a financial engineer. In 2018, she joined Stevens Institute of Technology and completed her Masters in Financial Engineering. Currently, she is working at BMO Financial Group in New York.
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Shalini is all praise for Nirmala for the wholesome upbringing she gave her. "The self-confidence I got from Amma is beyond words. I have done all sorts of things that a sighted person can do. I have done scuba diving in Andaman and Nicobar. I was enrolled in a music school when I was six years old and learned piano and salsa there. In 2012, I also participated in the International Salsa Congress. I also learned self-defense lessons for courage if I had to be alone," Shalini said.
"When I landed alone in America in 2013, the lessons given by my mother and the self-confidence she instilled in me were the things that kept me going," she added. She said she has been able to brave all the challenges because of Nirmala and today she is at the pique of her career, being the first blind student to join Financial Engineering in the School of Business.
“No matter how many people discouraged me, I persevered and completed the course. It is updated from time to time with the help of special software. All this is possible because of my mother and I am immeasurably grateful to her,'' Shalini said. She continues to be an extraordinary woman professional in the field of STEM and inspires several others like herself.
