Coimbatore :

When Anjum Khan received her PhD on Monday, it meant more than it does to most doctoral candidates-the 27-year-old lost her vision at the age of five after an attack of measles and has studied entirely in Braille.

Anjum is an assistant professor of English at Avinashilingam University. Her family moved from Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh to Coimbatore in 1993 for her treatment but doctors said she would never regain her vision.

“While my parents were thinking what next, the doctors told us about Avinashilingam school for girls,” says Anjum. She began learning Braille and use audio technology to help her read, write and study.

Her father, Mehmood Khan got a job at a private cement company in Madukkarai, 27km from Coimbatore. If Anjum had to continue her studies, Avinashilingam was among the few options as it had facilities and faculty to help her.

“I decided I would live in hostel and study. It is then that I realised that to gain something, one has to sacrifice something,” Anjum says. She lived in the hostel for 12 years from Class 6 till she finished her postgraduate degree.

After finishing school, Anjum joined the Avinashilingam University for Women to pursue a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature. “She finished her masters’ degree and applied for her doctoral studies in 2009,” says S Kalamani, Anjum’s guide and an associate professor in the department of English, Avinashilingam University. “Anjum had to leave thehostel after her MA, but, regularly visited me every Friday and told me how her research was progressing,” she says.

Anjum’s younger brother Abid Ali died in a road accident eight years ago while she was doing her masters’ degree. “My father had bought him a bike to make his commute between college and home easier,” says Anjum.

“It was a difficult time for the family. But, I have faced so much that I treat happiness and sorrow equally,” she says. Anjum has dedicated her PhD to her brother.

Anjum did her research on ‘Ethnic Silhouettes: An Interpretation Of The Community In Select Works Of M G Vassanji In The Light Of New Historicism’. She became an assistant professor in January 2013 in the university in which she studied.

Besides teaching at the university, Anjum also teaches blind children Braille and computer operations. “I consider teaching a means to reach people,” she says.’

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Coimbatore / by Adarsh Jain, TNN / October 14th, 2014