Dr Asna, who lost her limb to political violence in Kannur, after completing her MBBS course from the Kozhikode Medical CollegeKannur: Revenge is best served cold. So, Asna took 17 years to dish out her sweet revenge to the perpetrators of Kannur's political violence, which claimed her limb at the age of five. Standing tall after completing her MBBS from the Kozhikode Medical College, Dr Asna tells the violence-mongers, “I hate Kerala's political atmosphere and I am very much pained about the political murders and turbulence still prevalent in Kannur. Medical profession is an alternative means to serve the society.” Her medical degree and the message is her revenge on Kannur's politics of violence.
Little Asna with actor Sanusha soon after her surgery.Nearly two decades ago, a five-year-old Asna, the youngest victim of Kannur's poll violence, earned the pity of people, cutting across political divide, after she lost a leg in a bomb blast at Cheruvancherry village in Kerala's Kannur district in 2001. She was forgotten all these years just as we forget other victims of similar violence soon after they feature in the daily news reports. Those who have a faint memory of the news on Asna's tragedy and hospitalisation in 2001 would have thought that she would be plodding her way through all of life's travails. True, she struggled, but 17 years later, Dr Asna is a winner.
Asna was in class 1 when she lost one of her legs in the explosion. It was an election day that changed the lives of Asna and her family for ever. The villagers of Poovathur panchayath cast their ballots in Kerala assembly elections in 2001 at the lower primary school situated opposite to Asna's home. The family was standing on the veranda, watching the voters on the road. Asna's mother Shanta held her hand, while holding her two-and-a-half-year-old brother Anand in the other. Then, some workers of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh threw a bomb at two Congress activists, who allegedly ran towards Asna's house. A part of that single-storeyed, tile-roofed structure blew up, leaving all the three injured. Asna's brother suffered an injury on his foot and Shanta had serious burns on her stomach.
Asna's right leg beyond knee was damaged badly. Asna doesn't even have a faint memory of her life with right leg. Her childhood memories begin from her days at hospital, when she used to scream aloud from agonizing pain and doctors rush to inject analgesics. A little Asna found doctors as incarnation of God and wished to become one among them.
“I do not remember the physical pain I suffered from that incident but the mental pain haunts me all along my life. People who rushed us to the hospital didn't realize that all the three were injured. They thought the blood stains on my mother was from holding both of us. We took a lot of time to accept what fate had in store for us. But soon we accepted the fact and started living a 'normal' life. We realised a limb meant a lot to a human being,” Asna told Onmanorama.
Asna had never been submissive to her fate, for her family never let her feel that she lacked something.Asna's right leg, including her knee joint, was amputated. She spent more than three months in a private hospital at Kannur. Physicians suggested crutches but young Asna was obstinate for a brand new leg in the place. “I was reluctant to use the crutches though doctors asked me to use them, at least, until the wound healed. But I got my prosthetic limb far before that,” she says. Asna's residual limb has soft tissues and tender skin on its face, which gets blisters, pain and bleeding even from a slight stroll. But none of these limitations stood in her way while working towards her dream profession.
Her father Nanu, a local tea-shop owner had to sell his shop and spend all his time in and out of hospital in the days following the attack. Asna had never been submissive to her fate, for her family never let her feel that she lacked something. “I continued to learn in the same school across our gate, which witnessed violence on that fateful election day. Teachers and neighbours joined hands to make my school-life less riskier. My mother remembers instances when I cried aloud in helplessness as other kids performed all the physical activities with ease,” Asna says.
Nanu nurtured Asna's dream of a medical profession by telling her about the benefits of being a doctor. His words had their effect and Asna slowly set a goal: to become a surgeon. In 2013, she joined the Kozhikode Medical College for the MBBS course. She will commence her house surgency at the same institute this academic year, but is tight-lipped about her career as a medical professional. “I know that I have a great responsibility towards society, but one shouldn't trumpet one's plans before, at least, plotting a way to fulfil them,” she says. Her brother Anand is now a second-year graduation student in nursing.
This epitome of endurance and determination has a word of wisdom to share with fellow-sufferers: “Never lose your spirit. Your trust and belief in yourselves shall help you thrive. I still cannot stand on my prosthetic leg for a long time but who waits for so long? I have miles to plod before I rest!”
