KOZHIKODE: Saranya Anapoyil has had to live in a wheelchair after suffering from cerebral ataxia, a condition affecting the coordination of voluntary movements. But not one to let that keep her spirits down, the 31-year-old Karayad resident recognised her creativity and has channelled her emotions into verse.
And on Sunday, that effort will find expression in her first poetry collection -- ‘Hridayaspandanangal’. The book, comprising 31 Malayalam poems, will be released at the Kozhikode police club. While recalling her hard times, Saranya says, “Everything was normal to me until I was in the second year of my BCom course at Mercy College, Perambra. Out of the blue, my body started showing symptoms of cerebral ataxia.”
Within a few months, her condition worsened. “From speech to motion skills, the disease affected my whole body and my life changed forever. I endured five years of spending 24 hours in a room and dealing with medicines, medical tests and physiotherapy. Then I realised that I have skills that are not affected by the disease. And they will never be,” she says, with steely resolve.
Saranya fell in love with poetry and started focusing on her writing skills. “I remember the first poem I wrote -- in my Malayalam class when I was in Class 8. It was a four-line poem and was inspired by Kumaran Asan’s ‘Veena Poovu’. After many years, health limitations inspired me to document my poems on my mobile phone. I posted some poems on Facebook and received positive responses,” she says.
She still cannot write with paper and pen. The poems were recorded in the voice-to-text format on the mobile phone. She also typed some using a computer keyboard, but that process is laborious. “I go through my routines with the support of a walker now, and the help of others,” she says. Saranya is looked after by her father, Gangadharan, and mother, Shobhana. She also has the backing of two siblings.