Mysuru: This 15-year-old might have lost his left leg in an accident while returning home from school two years ago, but his spirit remains as strong as ever. Overcoming the suffering he had to go through after the accident, Ullekh a student of Sadvidya school here, has secured 91 percent marks in the SSLC exams this year.
“If one moves forward with courage and will power and concentrates on one's goals, one can achieve anything, no matter what the situation is," said Ullekh, son of Bannur Puttaswamy, a cable operator and Ms Annapoorna. He lost his left leg after he accidentally fell down from a KSRTC bus and his leg got stuck under the back wheel of the bus while he was attempting to catch the bus at the KSRTC city stand here on October 23, 2017. He was returning home from school.
Ullekh was rushed to a private hospital and since his leg was totally crushed, doctors had to remove it after surgery. After the accident, his parents shifted to Mysuru for his further treatment and his rehabilitation and education. "He was in class 9 when the incident occurred and as he could not attend classes after the surgery, he had taken special permission from the education department related to his attendance and had written his class 9 exams. While his prosthetic leg was fixed at a centre in Bengaluru, he had to often travel to Bengaluru and missed his class 10 classes frequently. During his SSLC exams, he developed severe pain as the bone in his left leg had grown a few inches and had pushed into the skin around the prosthetic leg. Despite these problems, he secured 123 marks in Kannada, 95 in English, 91 in Hindi, 96 in social, 88 in Maths, 76 in Science. After the exams the extra bone has been removed in a surgery conducted on April 25," his father Mr Puttaswamy said.
Ullekh plans to take science for PUC and wants to do his engineering at an IIT. He dreams of pursuing the UPSC civil service exams and becoming an IAS officer.
“Ullekh has been a topper all through. He is highly talented and is good at singing and dancing too. He has even acted in a few movies including Shivaraj Kumar's Jogaiah,” Mr Puttaswamy said.
His parents had lodged a case of alleged negligence against the driver and conductor of the KSRTC bus and the case is on but the driver died recently. "Though the government did bear the initial treatment expenses and also the cost of the prosthetic leg, we have not been getting any assistance for further treatment. Also the government had promised to bear the cost of his education, but so far nothing has been done in this regard,” Mr Puttaswamy disclosed.
Ullekh is fond of actors Shivarajkumar and Puneet Rajkumar and had expressed his wish to meet Shivarajkumar after the accident. The actor had visited their home and had motivated him too. The actor had told him, "unexpected incidents happen, but we must not stop, we must move forward with courage.”
