A bubbly girl, a chirpy girl. A girl with dreams in her eyes. A girl with vivacity in her style. The girl is Anita Goswami, a young 17-year-old from Vadodara. When she was merely fifteen, Christmas of 2019 turned awful for her. It was a bright cheerful day, perfect for a fun hangout at a shopping mall with her cousin. But who could’ve thought this very festive date would become dreadful for her? She and her cousin were on the way to the mall when their bike slipped on a bridge and Anita collided with a tin railing at the roadside. Her left leg got seriously injured below the knee. To add more to her ill-fate, her surgery got some complications, that needed her left leg to be amputated fully from above the knee.
Her family was devastated to watch their teenage girl’s life come to a standstill. While despite the resilience Anita showed, a parent’s heart continues to grieve over their little girl’s trauma. Nevertheless, Anita proved to be a very strong-minded girl. A girl that used to easily fright upon seeing a lizard or a cockroach, has never shed a tear for her misfortune, to date. Maybe it’s life’s mysterious way of operation that it miraculously fills people with unimaginable strength to cope with its hardships!
Like a guard built around her, she resisted all the shades thrown by neighbours telling her she won’t be able to do anything anymore. Her friends started drifting away from her. That was probably the only thing that affected her. She was deeply saddened to see her friends’ attitude towards her. But at the same time, out of all the fake stones, she found a real gem of a friend, Urmi, who stuck by her side when everyone else had left. At a time when Anita was struggling to adapt to her new lifestyle without her real leg, Urmi helped her move around. Whether it was a physical activity of climbing stairs or as emotional as being her companion, Urmi was there for her support in every way possible and continues to be so.
With so much happening around, one must wonder how could someone not break? How was Anita able to keep herself motivated? It was no smooth ride for her. But her luck had shined when she got to meet her guiding star, Deepa Malik, at the hospital she was operated in. Deepa Malik is a Padma Shri Shotput Athlete. She is the first Indian who’s won a medal at the Paralympics Games. She was there for a program on behalf of her foundation “Wheeling Happiness – Ability Beyond Disability”. She and her daughter Devika Malik brought in a much-needed positive aura in Anita’s life. Even later on after her surgery, she was taken to a Jaipur foot camp in Ahmedabad, which became a profound source for her motivation. There were hundreds of people like her and she witnessed many that had got it much worse than her. That’s what birthed a thought in her, that she shall not let the negative degrading thoughts prevail in her mind.
Then onwards she set her mind into focus for her upcoming 12th boards with unparallel moral support from her mother. Good days were on her side now. Through a referral from the camp, she got to know about GetBak. With GetBak’s new prosthetic leg, Anita got a better grip on her gait. She had attained so much grace in her movements, that now she could dance fervently like before.
Owing to the second wave of Covid, her 12th boards got canceled. So now she is vacationing by dancing and playing badminton with her new leg while looking forward to starting Bcomm with zeal.
If a teenage girl with 86 stitches in her leg could dance and play again like a free spirit, anyone with immense determination can. That’s what Anita wants everyone to believe. She suggests the likes of hers to maintain a good proper diet, preferably suggested by the respective doctor. Leg exercise helped her a lot, so she suggests exercising rigorously. In the end, she just wants everyone to remember that nothing is impossible, so be happy always as there’s nothing to worry about.
