Malvika Iyer, the second woman in a row to handle Prime Minister Narendra Modi's social media account on Sunday, is a survivor of a gruesome bomb blast at the age of 13 that blew off her hands and severely damaged her legs. However, the accident did not deter her from pursuing her dreams that she wrote her Ph.D. thesis with her one "extraordinary finger".
Iyer is a survivor of gruesome 2012 bomb blast in Bikaner in Rajasthan. The blast made her amputee.
In a pinned tweet, Iyer wrote: "Say hello to Dr Malvika Iyer. PS: To everyone who's been curious as to how I type, do you see that bone protruding from my right hand? That's my one and only extraordinary finger. I even typed my Ph.D. thesis with it :)"While introducing herself to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Twitter handle, Iyer wrote: "I survived a gruesome bomb blast at the age of 13 that blew off my hands and severely damaged my legs. Yet, I worked and went on to get my Ph.D. Giving up is never an option. Forget your limitations and take on the world with confidence and hope -#SheInspiresUs."
She said acceptance is the greatest gift that one can reward to himself or herself.
"Acceptance is the greatest reward we can give ourselves. We cannot control our lives but we surely can control our attitude towards life. At the end of the day, it is how we survive our challenges that matters the most," she said.
Stating that only education that can bring about change, she said, "I believe that education is indispensable for change. We need to sensitize young minds about discriminatory attitudes. We need to show people with disabilities as role models instead of showing them as weak and dependent."
Iyer, who is an award-winning disability rights activist with a Doctorate in Social Work, is also an international motivational speaker, a model for accessible fashion and a Global Shaper at the Global Shapers Community (an initiative of the World Economic Forum).
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content