NEYYATTINKARA:The ones who know Athira L S might introduce her as a graceful dancer, but the rest may call her a dancer with congenital hand deformity. “But what others see or think is their problem, not mine,” she said.
But even as people imagine hands that cannot form mudras, Athira stuns spectators with her dance. She won A grade for her Mohiniyattom performance at Thiruvananthapuram Revenue District School Kalotsavam.
At Aruvikkara Sub-district Kalotsavam, she had won the first prize - well, almost. “The organisers announced my name as the first prize winner at least five times.
Later, I learnt that the first prize went to someone else. I had filed an appeal against the decision and so could contest here,” Athira said.She has been learning dance since class III. The class IX student of Government Higher Secondary School, Aruvikkara, is part of a TV reality show, and has won several prizes in dance competitions.
However it is not for the prizes that she dances. “I watch dance videos on the Internet, when time permits and practise new steps,” she said. When she is not dancing, she can be found in the school library. “I recently read an abridged version of Shakespeare’s Macbeth,” she said.Her ambition? “I want to be a dancer. I think that is an obvious choice, is it not?” she asked.Her mother, Latha P, is an employee with the Directorate of Ayurveda. She lost her father even before she was born.