A. Kriti Varma with his mother Kasthuri.
| Photo Credit: BASHKARAN N

Exactly two summers ago, in May 2023, A. Kriti Varma received a phone call from Chief Minister M.K. Stalin congratulating the 16-year-old boy who had written the Class 10 board exams holding his pen between his amputated arms and scored 437 out of 500.

On Thursday, as Varma, a student of the Government Higher Secondary School in Nedumaruthi, glanced at his Plus Two marksheet bearing a score of 471 out of 600, he recalled the Chief Minister’s promise.

“The Chief Minister had said he would talk to the doctors and help me get a limb transplant. But at that time, he asked me to study and clear my Plus Two exams first,” said Varma.

The very same day, the Chief Minister posted a tweet saying he had asked Health Minister Ma. Subramanian to arrange for Varma’s medical treatment.

Ask Varma about his higher education dream, and he says he wants to become an engineer.

Varma was pushed into a life of disability at the age of four, when he suffered an electric shock as he needled a power line with a stick. He lost both hands elbow down, and a few toes.

He was introduced to schooling after a chance encounter with his government primary school headmistress S. Anandhi, who found him playing on the streets during a summer school enrolment campaign. Ms. Anandhi took Varma under her wing, and taught him to write with his truncated arms. “He was unable to write with prosthetic limbs, so it was dropped while he was young. His handwriting is impeccable even now,” Ms. Anandhi said.

At that time, speaking to The Hindu, Ms.Anandhi recollected her sense of purpose, when Varma first wrote his Tamil letter ‘Aahh’ with his amputated limbs.

His association with Ms. Anandhi continues to this day, with the latter seeking the government’s help for his limb transplant following the declaration of the Class 12 results.

“Two hospitals – Global Hospitals and Apollo Hospitals – perform this surgery. Even last month, the limb transplant was performed on a woman,” notes Ms. Anandhi, desperate to see Varma regain his limbs.

‘Another mother’

“Anandhi Miss is his Maruthaai – another mother. All we want now is the limb transplant that had been promised to him. He will be set for life, and not feel limited [if the transplant is done],” says Kasthuri, Varma’s mother, who survives on MGNREGS wages.

As of Thursday evening, Varma’s family had received a call from the office of the Health Minister informing them of preparations for a tissue match. “They are arranging a car for their [the family’s] transport to Chennai on Friday,” Ms. Anandhi told The Hindu.

Collector C. Dinesh Kumar also visited Varma and promised all necessary assistance.