KOCHI: Mothers are as resilient and resourceful as they come. Despite being at the receiving end of life’s vagaries, Swathy Anil is unfazed. With sheer grit and determination she is all set to overcome her troubles, one little step at a time.
The Thrissur native and her husband Anil, a casual worker, were dealt a major blow when their son Anay—born after four years of marriage—contracted encephalitis and developed a severe disability. Anay’s illness ate into their finances and to earn an income to support her child’s treatment Swathy started a YouTube channel, Mallu Mom, that’s attracting a lot of followers.
“Our son, whom we fondly call Kannan, was just five months old when he had encephalitis and this affected his overall health,” says Swathy. Kannan had till then been a healthy child. “He was achieving all the growth parameters. We were happy and had been enjoying each of his little achievements,” she said.
But after contracting the disease, he became unable to hold his head upright and lost all motor abilities, including mobility, remembers Swathy, for whom the days went by in a blur with visits to the hospitals becoming the norm.
“His treatment started eating into our savings that we had set aside for constructing a house. The situation is such that we will have to sell our under-construction house to clear the debts. However, none is interested in buying a half-built house and those interested are quoting a very low price,” she said.
‘I wanted to supplement family income and stay busy’
Swathy then thought of means to supplement her husband’s earnings. “During the pandemic, I began doing bottle art. However, when I realised that it wasn’t attracting any interest, I switched to baking cakes. I learnt to make cakes by watching YouTube videos and my products began gaining customers,” says Swathy, who had to fight depression during this time.
“I wanted to not only supplement the family income but also remain busy. I was looking to be very busy so that I wouldn’t have time for negative thoughts. The arrival of my daughter helped in this matter,” says Swathy, who later gave up her cake business due to lack of time. It was during that time when a friend suggested making content videos.
“She told me how such channels on YouTube are becoming a source of income. This led me to start the YouTube channel ‘Mallu Mom by Swathy’. At first, I was very afraid to show Kannan in the videos. The fear of negative comments made me hesitant. But later, I thought, why not? He is my son. Just because he has disabilities, he doesn’t cease to become my son.
So, I began shooting videos with him. The content showcased his daily activities and achievements,” said Swathy whose videos became a hit among mothers who began looking forward to new content. However, even though her channel has taken off, she still needs a lot of support from good samaritans to stand on her feet and support her son and family.