20 years on, this victim of political violence in Kerala is now a doctor

PTI, Feb 7, 2020, 10:38 AM IST

Thiruvananthapuram: With an amputated leg and shattered dreams, she has been a living embodiment of political violence for Keralites for the last 20 years.

But, that little six-year-old girl, whose right leg was shattered in a bomb hurled by an RSS worker while playing in front of her house, has now become a medical doctor fighting years-long ordeals of life with her willpower and confidence.

After completing MBBS and house-surgency, Asna has now joined as a doctor at the family health centre in her home village Cheruvanchery in politically volatile Kannur district.

Proud Asna was all smiles when she came to join the village hospital as a doctor on Wednesday.

“Everyone supported me. It is a dream come true for me. I am more happy as I could begin my career in my home village,” she told reporters.

Four-year-old Anvay Swaroop, a village boy, was her first patient at the hospital.

Asna was playing at the courtyard of her house when the crude bomb, hurled by the RSS worker as part of a fight with the local CPI(M) cadre, exploded on September 27, 2000, maiming her for life.

After the horrific incident, she had to spend many months at the government medical college hospital in Kozhikode district.

She could have easily given up her dreams as any other village girl most likely would have, but Asna, who came out of the hospital with an artificial leg, decided to fight her ordeal and make her childhood dream – becoming a doctor – a reality.

When her poor parents and a group of noble-minded people had supported her whole-heartedly, Asna could clear her medical entrance test and join the Kozhikode Medical College, where she had spent months suffering pain, for her MBBS course.

When Asna had found it difficult to reach her classroom which was at the fourth floor of the medical college building, the then Chief Minister Oommen Chandy had taken the initiative to instal an elevator by spending Rs 38 lakh.

Generous people had collected around Rs 15 lakh for her to meet her educational expenses