"I was in the 3rd grade when my height stopped increasing. My classmates noticed this and started calling me by names like 'tingu' and 'chotu'. I couldn't just keep quiet, so I got into a lot of fights. My parents didn't know what was wrong. They waited patiently for a few years, and also took me to multiple doctors, but nothing helped. Eventually, we were told the hard fact - I had Dwarfism. I kept asking my parents what it actually meant, but they couldn't get themselves to explain it to me - it was traumatizing.
Soon, I started seeing the effects of it in my daily life. Something as simple as getting onto a bus started feeling like a big task -I couldn't even go to school on my own, and I felt terrible. I lacked the ability to do basic things that everybody else my age could do. Eventually my parents realized how I was feeling, so they'd keep telling me to own my identity and be confident - and make the most of the one life that I had.
My dad was resistant towards me going out to work, he was worried for me- he didn't want his daughter to face the cruel world. But when he saw me being so persistent, when he saw how hard I was trying to do everything on my own...he encouraged me to chase my dreams. I still have people around me, who look at me strangely - I still have people who think I can't walk properly or 'catch trains'. And even people who think I can't live life 'normally'.
But I've learnt to stop looking at myself from the eyes of others. Because they'll probably never be in my shoes, and know what being 'me' feels like. All they can see, is what I show them - which is going to be a confident woman, who's not afraid of loving herself...exactly as she is."
Humans of Bombay, Fb
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