Dharamsala, June 14
“His IQ level beats that of Albert Einstein,” confirms the Gifted Development Centre, USA.
Meet 11-year-old Akrit Jaswal, a resident of Noorpur, near here, who, after spending over two months with research fellows at the Tata Cancer Institute, Mumbai, and doing research at his personal lab in Delhi, now claims to have had breakthroughs in genetic treatment of cancer and AIDS.
Today, when the Himachal Pradesh School Education Board decided to allow him to take the plus two exams in 2005, nobody raised an eyebrow. “This is just to enable me to have the bare minimum academic qualification for getting my research patented,” said Akrit in an interview with The Tribune.
Once out of his lab, Akrit feels, he is no different from friends of his age group. “I talk and walk like any other child. It’s just that my brain has developed much faster,” he said. On second thoughts, he added he was also more mature than them and could take decisions independently without any hesitation.
Akrit’s mother, Anju, said they first realised that their child was special when he would give answers to questions meant for BA students who came to her to take English tuitions. “After advice from relatives and friends, we decided to set up our own school for him so that he could be groomed properly,” she said.
But while still in class II, Akrit suggested modifications in the syllabus of class V. He was immediately put to test for class V, which he cleared as a special case.
“But when it came to taking him to the USA for getting tests conducted on him, we had to sell off the school and some other property. His psycho-evaluation was done for 17 days before the Gifted Development Centre came out with its verdict in 2001. Later, he was taken to the Department of Science and Technology, which wanted him to stay in Delhi. So we set up a lab there,” said the mother.
All this attention does not bother Akrit. “When I used to walk down the corridors of the Tata Cancer Institute, there were days when nearly 300 patients and doctors would line up to see me. I am very comfortable with the whole thing,” he said.
Talking about his research, Akrit said although he had found a technique to treat cancer and AIDS genetically, he has used only chemicals to come to these conclusions. “I have not used any genetic therapy in the lab,” he said.
But one thing was for sure, he said, his first choice would be to work for his state. “I would like to do a PhD in pharmaceutical chemistry and continue with my research in Himachal Pradesh. This would be an expression of my love for the people of my state,’” he said.
