Blind at 8, auto driver's son cracks UPSC with AIR 109

At around eight years old, Ajay R Raj lost most of his eyesight.For a child growing up in a small town in Kerala's Western Ghats, between Kozhikode and Wayanad, it could have narrowed the world considerably. His family, too, was not one of privilege. His father was an autorickshaw driver and his mother a homemaker. Meeting household expenses while funding their son's education was a struggle.But somewhere between the financial limitations at home and the gradual loss of his eyesight, Raj found something that gave him access to a much larger world: books. In Class 5, he discovered a small library in his town.