Kannammaa Writes

  Independence Despite Disability ♿✨ Redefining What It Means to Be Independent I was a fiercely independent teenager—not only was I not sheltered, but I also hated the idea of others doing things for me. If anything, I was the one people relied on. 🏍️ I ran errands on my motorcycle, paid bills, and tutored my neighbors’ kids in English. 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 I accompanied my parents to hospital appointments—while managing my own. 🎉 I took my nieces and nephews to school events and birthday outings. 🐶 I looked after my pet dog, Mylo, and extended my help to family, friends, and neighbors every chance I got. All this—while quietly battling the early symptoms of an unknown, foreign disease hidden deep within my DNA. The Silent Struggle Within 💢 At first, it was subtle but relentless: Unexplained body pain Fatigue Migraines Soon, the symptoms became impossible to ignore. My body began to betray me—walking and writing grew difficult. Violent tremors shook my hands. My j...

Personally, I've deviated far from the socially accepted life for an Indian woman. Here's my story. I hope it will inspire that life isn't a set template, it's all about breaking barriers. I Fell Gravely Ill when I was Writing My Pre-University Exams and Couldn’t Go to University.     The onset of my rare genetic disease happened during my pre-university days - I was 19 years old.  At that time, no one could determine what was wrong with me. I was admitted to the hospital and wrote  my exams there. I was in a lot of pain. My hands shook and I had difficulty writing but I pushed through anyway, in tears. I got sicker because of misdiagnosis.   Since my disease is rare, doctors misdiagnosed it many times. So, I got worse and worse – critical time was wasted. After correct diagnosis, I had severe allergy reactions to the medicine. Throughout the ordeal, I had to make great effort even to swallow. My tremors were so violent, it shook the wheelchair when I sat in it....

Call me ableist and insensitive - but I will say what I have to say about the sexism affecting only Indian disabled women. I had a disabled female relative and a disabled female doctor (both with Indian roots and affected by childhood polio). They were used liberally as inspiration porn as they were successful in a world built for able bodied people. However, marriage and romantic relationships eluded them - the words from my female relative rings sonorously in my conscience: "They think disabled people should be grateful they’re allowed to exist – romantic relationships, intimacy, marriage are excess. To some extent, disabled men have more chances to find a life partner than disabled women in our patriarchal society. Patriarchy renders women like me unmarriageable.  In the past, during the penn paarkum vaibavam (bride seeing ceremony), right... They will ask the bride they came to see to walk, sing, ask her questions, and make her serve coffee and tidbits. This was to check if th...

  Telugu megastar Chiranjeevi recently said at an event that his house is like a lady's hostel and he's the hostel warden - referring to his five granddaughters. He added that he needs a grandson from his son to continue his family legacy. He was rebuked for saying such things in public in a country where female fetuses are aborted over the preference for sons. Still, people are saying that there's nothing wrong with what he said. "Truly, only boys carry the family legacy." There are still people with such a mindset - so, public figures should watch what they say. Leave social responsibility - how'd his granddaughters feel when they hear his sexist remarks on them? They'd feel shortchanged, unworthy and that it doesn't matter how much they excel and achieve, they wouldn't measure up to a boy. And that will affect their confidence and overall sense of self-worth. Their grandfather should have at least realized that before shooting off his mouth that...

Disclaimer:  I am only expressing my thoughts on this blog. I am neither imposing anyone to follow my atheism nor ordering anyone to stop believing in whatever they want to believe. You don't have any right to invalidate my thoughts and impose your religiosity on me in the name of commenting. There are thousands of religious faith belief based blogs - go and croak there. When faced with the unknown and hence petrifying situations, it is humans’ nature to reason them with their own understanding. That is how religions, rituals, superstition, metaphysics all came to manifest among us. That is how reincarnation and karma concepts came about as well. It’s perfectly fine to cling to such concepts when we don’t know better. But to continue to reason in such ways when science offers answers and solutions is not wise. I have a rare genetic disease known as Wilson’s Disease (WD). It’s a copper metabolism disease where I suffer from trace mineral copper toxicity. I can’t flush out th...