Not every child who cannot spell is a ‘naughty kid’. But in the society where I come from, there is no idea of an alternative.

My father is in the government services, and consequently I spent a large part of my early childhood in different cities. In second grade, my teacher told my parents that I could not spell my name in Hindi but I could only spell it in English, because the latter was taught to me. My parents believed that a lack of practice was responsible for my performance. Since I moved from one city to another, they were convinced I was not giving enough attention to my education. While I always learnt things quickly, reproducing that information eloquently was beyond me. Regardless, no one thought that it could be a learning disability.

Things changed for the worse when I moved to an all English medium school in third grade, pushing me back to where I had started. Fortunately, I had teachers who helped me with spellings, sentences, and comprehensions. The 12th grade took a toll on me. The academic workload coupled with health issues resulted in a devastating performance.

Coming to Ashoka, some part of me knew that my life was going to change. I always wanted to be a part of an institution that made space for those who did not fit into the traditional education system that exists in this country.

At Ashoka, I decided to study history, political science, and sociology and anthropology. While I loved the courses and my professors, I knew something was amiss. I was always behind with readings. It took about two hours to go through a 20-25 page long reading that peers would complete in about half an hour. I dreaded written examinations in the fear that I would forget lengthy articles; multiple choice questions were a nightmare regardless of the number of sample papers I

At Ashoka, I decided to study history, political science, and sociology and anthropology. While I loved the courses and my professors, I knew something was amiss. I was always behind with readings. It took about two hours to go through a 20-25 page long reading that peers would complete in about half an hour. I dreaded written examinations in the fear that I would forget lengthy articles; multiple choice questions were a nightmare regardless of the number of sample papers I solved. By second year I had convinced myself that college was exponentially tougher than school, and so I needed to dedicate all my hours to it.

solved. By second year I had convinced myself that college was exponentially tougher than school, and so I needed to dedicate all my hours to it.

By this time I had devised a system of writing notes with marking page numbers, paragraph numbers, and colour coding everything. It sure took longer than most, but it helped keep up with classes. In my fourth semester, I opened up to a senior about my academic troubles for the first time. It was she who suggested that I visit the Office of Learning Support (OLS).

Soon I met Reena Gupta, Director, OLS. When I spoke to her about my academic difficulties, she said, “I have never met someone who has managed to explain her issues with the same eloquence as you have.” She asked me to take a test. The test reflected that I had Specific Learning Difficulty with both language and mathematics fluency.

I remember the day OLS told me about my learning difficulty, I felt a mountain lifted off my shoulders. For the longest time, I had been pushing myself to do better as I was convinced I was not trying ‘hard enough’. That day, for the first time, I realised it was not my fault.

The OLS helped me a lot. They spoke to my professors and installed an audio transcription software that could convert readings into audiobooks. I was provided extra time for my written examinations and not graded on my spelling errors. I was soon dealing with academic pressure more healthily. My grades improved; I began enjoying my classes as I struggled less. In my final semester, I even volunteered to be a notetaker for a peer.

Ashoka and the OLS helped me understand that I had a learning disability, something I had struggled with my entire school life, but with no knowledge of it. It was also here where I promised myself to never let my disability become an obstacle in my academic journey. Having graduated this May, I am going study Gender, Policy and Inequalities at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), hoping to pursue research.

Kalyani Shukla, Undergraduate 2019, shares her journey of discovering and coping with Specific Learning Disability and the role Ashoka University played in it