Mysuru: Conquering disability is never easy in a society slowly waking up to the need to give the challenged their due and so Mr Krishna Hombal’s joy knew no bounds when he became the first visually challenged academic in the 102 year long history of University of Mysuru to assume charge as chairperson of a post-graduate department.
“I am happy to get this coveted post, my responsibility has increased with this,” Mr Hombal told Deccan Chronicle.
Fifty-year-old Mr Hombal, was appointed assistant professor in the department of political studies in the university way back in 1999 and was the first visually challenged man to be appointed to the post in the state.
The youngest of nine children, he says it was the consanguinous marriage of his parents which left him visually challenged. It was no hurdle for him, he secured the Chandrashekar Patel Memorial gold medal for scoring the highest marks in BA, Political Science and later pursued his MA and MPhil at Karnataka University, Dharwad.
He was awarded PhD by University of Mysore, for his research thesis on ‘Dynamics of India and World Trade Organisation: Responses of national political parties-an analysis.’ He has even published more than 40 research articles.
Not stopping at this, Mr Hombal successfully guided five students in their PhD and 16 students in their MPhil studies. After all, disability is a state of mind!
