Tea vendor-turned-CA might struggle to stand after accident

PUNE: Somnath Giram had become a champion of the masses earlier this year after he cracked the tough Chartered Accountancy (CA) final exam. The Pune-based tea seller went from working by the roadside to being made the brand ambassador for government's earn and learn initiative. However, it all came crashing down after he met with an accident this week.
"Somnath, our brother Ganesh, and I were driving on Thursday near Solapur when a dog jumped onto the road.Ganesh tried to swerve away to save the animal but lost control and the car toppled towards a field next to the road. Somnath was the only one injured while two of us escaped unhurt," his brother Srikanth, 28, said.
Somnath was brought to Sancheti Hospital in Pune for treatment. Doctors said he suffered paralysis from the waist down due to a spinal shock. Srikanth said that while they were happy to hear his brother would get treatment at the government's expense, they have not got any official communication from the state yet. "We have no letter to show that the government has agreed to pay for the treatment," he said.
Srikanth said he received a call from a senior state government official while the hospital received a communication from the chief minister's office for the same. This was also confirmed by an administrative official of the hospital. Srikanth as well as Somnath's colleague Deepal Birhade, a company secretary, said that while he has gained consciousness, Somnath is in a lot of pain, which makes it difficult for him to talk.
Despite Somnath's condition, his worried parents are unable to come see him. "Our mother cannot move around much due to her health, so she is at our native place, and our father is tending to the fields while I am away," Srikanth said.
A team of doctors, led by Parag Sancheti and Shailesh Hadgaonkar, is observing Somnath's vitals to decide on the right time for a surgery. "Somnath is experiencing spinal shock, which has has presently put his lower body in a paralysed state. His sugar level is very high and his blood pressure is fluctuating. Until his vitals stabilise, we cannot operate on him. We will wait till Monday to decide the future course of treatment," Hadgaonkar said.
Son of a farmer in Solapur district, Somnath Giram used to operate a tea stall in Sadashiv Peth area before he cracked the CA exam this year. His sudden popularity and against-all-odds story had caught the attention of the state government. Education minister Vinod Tawde had made him the brand ambassador for government's 'earn and learn' initiative.