A spirited girl—from Satna in Madhya Pradesh—took on the challenge life gave her, worked hard towards her goals, won it and how! She lost her right arm in a school bus accident caused by a careless drunk driver, but from changing her tragic turns to inspirational curves, her life post the accident is something everyone can yield life lessons from. When life gave her lemons, she made lemonade and lemon cheese cake! Here’s introducing the brave and beautiful, Anushka Pathak.
The Unfortunate Incident
On March 23rd, 2012, on our way back from a school trip to Daman and Diu, our drunk driver had taken the bus over a street divider. The bus started falling and my face smashed the glass window. Everyone was panicking and screaming, and began to get out of the bus. I tried to get out too but I couldn’t. My friends came to pull me up. That’s when we found my right arm lying on the ground severely injured.
The Path of Recovery
I was in the hospital for 25 days and I had surgery almost every other day. I had suffered severe injuries to my face and completely lost the area under my right eye. Even much later, I would undergo horrible phantom pain at times. After a week in the hospital, I started writing with my left hand. It took the entire summer for me to completely recover, at least physically. I had to learn to dress myself up and do many other things with just my left hand. I had to cut my hair short since tying my hair up was difficult.
Accepting the Reality
I knew that I had lost my arm when the accident happened. After all my surgeries and recovery, my big question was- “Now what do I do?”. I had to learn everything from scratch all over again. Everything became a challenge for me from going back to school to doing things all on my own. It was more nervousness than disappointment initially. Disappointment came later when I was unable to do things on my own.
RIP Justice
To watch their child suffer would upset any parent, so was my dad. He said he would sue the school. I was not going to let him do it. The main reason was that because my school was really good. I had my friends there. I was looking forward to go back to school post recovery. I told my dad if suing the school would get me my arm back, then he could go ahead with it!
I blame only the drunk driver for what has happened to me. We even filed a case against the driver and won, but he was released after someone bailed him out and he’s still on the loose.
Bye Bye India
After completing school, I decided to go to the US for college. I was tired of answering random people about losing my arm. In India I had limitations to do things that I could have done if I had not lost an arm. Here I was reminded over and over again of the mishap in the name of sympathy. Though my parents and friends always found ways for me to do things, people here only questioned about how I was going to manage with just one arm.
But in the US, people are more liberal about these things. No one restricted me from doing things or passed comments or judged me. I was like everyone else. My disability didn’t define me anymore. I have done rock climbing, ice skating and even participated in a hip-hop event, just for the fun of it and just because I could! I wouldn’t have been able to experience these things in India without making heads turn. In the US, no one has ever told me I cannot do something!
Parents – My Strongest Support System
My friends from both school and college have been very encouraging. They used to learn and practice doing different tasks with one hand and then teach it to me. In spite of all the social pressure, my parents have always been helping me do things on my own. They don’t make me sulk about what happened. They encourage me to get up and do things on my own. I would say that my parents have been my biggest support system. I couldn’t have reclaimed my life as wonderfully without them.
Power of Positivity
I’ve been doing things progressively in the course of learning to do them with one arm. When people underestimate me about doing something, I want to do that even more. It motivates me and instills a sense of challenge in my mind. From the moment I lost my arm, I have changed as a person. I used to stare at people who are differently-abled before, and now that I am in their shoes I can understand how that feels.
For all its worth, I have become more accepting of everything, more driven, and grown more mature, which I wouldn’t have been had this not happened. I’m not the same person I was before the accident. I could have gone into total depression after that incident, because I had all the right to, but that is not what I wanted to become. I wanted to overcome the hurdles and win!
Quicky Bytes-
Life – Live it
Dream – Always!
Friends – The best