Rani with her other half Saroj Sahu
“Like a flower, waiting to bloom Like a lightbulb, in a dark room I’m just sittin’ here waiting for you To come on home and turn me on.”
Nine years back Pramodini Raul was a happy go lucky, chirpy and pretty girl. She too had desires and dreams. She wanted to touch the sky and fly away.
Like any other girl she too wanted her man to love, but one man’s proposal kindoff irked her. She rejected army jawan Santosh kumar Beanta’s proposal and there is where the problem started.
Pramodini was just 16 years old when an official from an Army camp near her school started stalking her, when faced with rejection he threw acid on Pramodini aka Rani. A pall of gloom had suddenly descended on her and the family.
Suffering since 2009 she was overweight, paralytic, visually challenged and due to lack of treatment and physiotherapy her condition was worsening. She had started weighing almost 100 kilos.
She had undergone multiple surgeries as her face, arm, neck and eye were damaged in the acid attack. Her parents could not afford the treatment.
Struggling to survive in tough circumstances it was here that Saroj Sahu, a medical representative entered her life like an angel of mercy.
Doctors having advised her to walk and exercise to reduce weight, a nurse narrated her plight to medical representative Saroj.
Hearing the sordid tale his heart melt and Sahu took up a challenge and told the nurse that he would help Rani reduce weight.
In three months Rani’s weight was reduced to 53kg and in five months time she was able to walk.
While Saroj changed her life, she too had found her knight in shining armour. On Valentine’s Day the two got engaged at Sheroes Hangout in Lucknow.
The ring ceremony is over and they will marry next year’. They even waltzed on their big day as friends and well wishers cheered the two.
The couple first time met when Pramodini was undergoing treatment at a hospital in Cuttack after surviving the attack. The acid burnt almost 80% of her body and blinded her.
She was in ICU for nine months and bedridden for the next five years till 2014. Operated upon in July 2017 in Chennai she has got back 20% vision in her left eye.
The assailant was finally arrested on November 17 last year after intervention of Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik.
Rani works as helpdesk representative at Sheroes Home in Noida. She joined it in 2015 and has been in Delhi, Agra and Lucknow.
Days after Women’s Day it is stories like this that restore your faith in the power of womanhood.
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