Have you ever faced ignorance from society? Have you ever encountered words like ‘you are not beautiful or you do not seem like everyone else? or you cannot do this in a better way? Then you should definitely read this. The Catholic shares the life story of a 32-year-old woman who bravely moved forward with the conviction that she was not ready to give up facing a skin disease that medical science has yet to discover. The inspiring life of Alphy Lal V., who is preparing to become a research scholar in English Literature at the University of Pondicherry can fire up you as she is an icon of confidence that achieved the strength grasped up straws of life.
This is Alphy, at a First Glance
Alphy looks like a very normal girl about her age. But if you look at her again, you will understand what the real Alphy is. A girl with all parts of her body dry and torn, sometimes with sores and other times with black spots. Another peculiarity of her state is even though these scars are present in her scalp too, there are no anomalies on her face.
Despite being treated in various hospitals across India, medical science has not been able to find a single name for Alphy’s condition. Even the result of the biopsy is recorded as very ‘normal’ skin.
This is Alphy in appearance, but not the real Alphy. She is a good- lovable one. Spreads positive energy to those she meets; She is a girl with extremely amusing confidence than any other at her age. She is courageous and does not have fear of anything. A studious one blended with the talent of art, and literature. In the Profession, she is a teacher and also a motivational speaker. Above these, she is the girl with ardent love of God.
‘Alphy..! She is smart enough- this can be the first comment heard from everyone who knows Alphy. But the path this girl had to take to get to this Alphy today was not so easy. It was an uphill struggle to become a strong one in front of society.
‘Illness’ Found 45 Days After Birth
Alphy was born the second daughter of Varghese and Brigitta in the Inchikkalayil family, at a village of Nadavayal, Wayanad in Kerala. She was just like any other child when she was born. She became unnatural and unordinary after 45 days of her birth. It seemed that the skin on the baby’s body was peeling off from time to time. The parents consulted the doctor immediately then. But the doctor consoled her parents saying that the baby is adapting to the weather. In later years, Alphy proved that she is an ‘extra ordinary’ girl with more specialties in her appearance. By the age of three months, the baby’s neck would not be straight even if it was held straight. At the same time, the back of the head began to grow. Like any parent, this was not quite a good sign for her parents too. It was the days of immense fret and prayer for them.
Alphy’s Mom worked hard to overcome the peculiarities of her baby. Even in her sleep, she was praying and massaging the baby’s head to shrink the growing head of the girl child. Even she reached the age of three years, it was time exceeded hear the first word from Alphy. She didn’t start to walk and talk. Finally, her mom again called Saint Alphonsa for an intercession. She vowed to take her child to the tomb of the saint when Alphy healed. As the evidence of her mother’s faith, the intercession of St. Alphonsa happened, Alphy began to speak. And the first step of Alphy on this earth was witnessed by her mom, she found that it is quite different from any other baby’s first walk. Hence, Alphy’s mom decided to do a ‘home physiotherapy’ because she had shown some difficulties in walking. Her mother let her hold the little hands in her mom’s dress while she was cleaning the yard. In that way, Alphy walked into life out of all barriers.
“Oh, there is something in your Neck”- The First ‘Discrimination’ at the Age of Four
Although the scars on her body were still there in little Alphy, she grew up with her elder sister Brilla as a normal child by receiving all the love and care from her family. Alphy’s body scars and the resulting discomfort increased passing each year. She underwent many kinds of treatments, but none of them worked in the pink of her health. So when Alphy was four, she went to the nursery for the first time. It was there that Alphy’s discrimination and wisdom in life began.
Childhood curiosities have no boundaries. Children explore new things in every instance. When Alphy reached her pre-primary session, the boy next to her pulled off the dress that covered her neck and said, “Oh there is something in your neck.” It was then, Alphy realized for the first time in her notion and knowledge that there is something special about her neck. Alphy told her mom about the incident in the kindergarten that evening, along with the events of the day.
“As soon as I told, my mom started crying in front of me. Then I realized that I should never say anything like this to anyone again. Ergo, I used to sit on the edge of a bench in the nursery school,” Alphy says.
It was the event that pragmatically changed the views of life in Alphy. Although it was the child’s first wound who realized she was not apt and unnatural for a social life. Alphy describes the incident as the first day of her recognition of wisdom. Later, Alphy went to school in an isolated mode. She kept a distance always from her classmates as she doesn’t want to get any more wounds by their acts and words. Hence Alphy managed her childhood schools days without being in a circle of friends.
The Painful Childhood
Alphy had very few experiences at school that she could bear in mind. Yet, School life gave her knowledge of all the good and bitter aspects of life and laid the foundation for Alphy’s morale. Alphy went to school alternate months until the ninth standard. Every alternate month she has got sores all over her body similar to chickenpox. Her destiny was to spend time in bed with the suppurating pain of sores.
“At that time, my body was full of sores. I couldn’t move or even turn around. Even though I had been suffering from severe pain, I didn’t tell anyone. My only prayer at the time was that my wounds wouldn’t stick to the petticoat I had put on, because later when my mom let me change the dress, my skin would peel off and I could not bear the terrible pain,” Alphy remembers the painful days of her childhood when she had to fly like a butterfly.
Alphy loved solitude as she passed each class. There were none who were willing to join Alphy as she doesn’t look natural like others. Some of the friends who were there also had strict instructions from the family to not make any friends with her. Sitting with a sick child, playing with or eating together would spread the disease to their children too was the reason behind for these restrictions.
“I love Alphy a lot. But Mummy saw the dust on Alphy’s body in my clothes. So if I walk with Alphy anymore, Mummy will beat me,” this is what a classmate, who had been a playmate for many days, holding her right hand and walked shoulder to shoulder told Alphy one afternoon in the backyard of the school under a mango tree.
“In fact, it’s always been what I expected it to be. Naturally, I was sad that day, but it was more about the helplessness of my friends than my sadness. I have been wondering how I can be alone ever since. I had no expectations about school. I was realizing that there was no one waiting there for me. Along with that I was convinced of a few other things; even though no one is waiting for me, I have to blow out of the water.”
Through this incident, she was able to make her own decision about the life of a fourth-standard student.
If that Teacher was not there …
One day a teacher, realized that Alphy is being in a kind of forceful seclusion by her classmates. The teacher punished a girl who had made fun of Alphy in front of everyone. The teacher hugged her and said to others, “If I knew that someone had said something to her, this would be the answer.’
That careful consideration was an effective treatment to regain her confidence which had been fading due to the devastating acts from her classmates. “Because other children have friends and they all get the love and caress of everyone. I will be the one who knows most about how important a caress and hug are in life. The price of love and care received through an open heart is immense. Only those who lack will understand it deeply. Today, as a teacher, I would say, that is what the teacher did then was not right, it was enough to call the girl and give a bit of advice. But the teacher was setting up a model there. No one in school life has made fun of me in public since then,”- Alphy recalls.
Alphy’s strength was always the teachers. They started giving stages to Alphy to show her talents. Alphy began writing short stories and poems. One day when she got free time in school, she wrote a poem. One of her classmates took it and handed it over to the teacher. The next day, at the school assembly, the headmaster read Alphy’s poem to others.
“He called me on stage saying it was written by a classmate of yours when the teachers were not there. I was too short then so the students behind could not see me. Then the Headmaster lifted me in his arms by saying, ‘this is a little charm’,”- Alphy is sharing the sweetest memories of her school life.
Later in life, Alphy never looked back. She realized that she needed twice as much self-esteem and confidence than others. “When others judged it to be my weak point, I made it my strong point. I thought it was okay if someone devalued me. If someone told me to be back two steps, I would take four steps forward,” Alphy laughs. Even so, Alphy was suffering from that bubble-like illness that occurred every alternate month.
The mom’s Home Science Record Book gave wings to Alphy’s imagination during her lost childhood. All of its paintings and stories evoked the artist in Alphy. It was also through this, Alphy tried to regain much of what she had lost. She did not put all the colors of her childhood inside that one book only. Rather, it was the Samadhi of a pupa waiting for its wings to fly into the vast world of knowledge and reading through a record book.
After a decade’s suffering, by the prayer of Alphy’s mom, she was cured of the ‘bubble’ disease. However, other problems were aggravated by climate change. Alphy passed the secondary level of education with high marks. Although she sat for the Medical Entrance Examination, she was unable to choose her preferred field of study due to financial constraints at home. That’s how Alphy decides to join a low-cost degree course. There, too, Alphy’s week point preferred for the graduation. She opted for Functional English for the graduation. After that, she completed her B.Ed. But there were big challenges waiting for Alphy in the school.
When the Wonder Turned to Love
During her Teaching Practice, Alphy never thought that her illness would be a challenge in her profession. At first, she went to teach the Eighth standard students during her Teachers’ Training time. The children were shocked when they saw the teacher in the class. They showed it abruptly. Instead of saying good morning, the children received Alphy, the teacher, with the tempestuous storming sound of ‘Shhh ….’ Alphy moiled for a moment. But she used the same narrative technique that made her heroin in the classroom. It was that the journies that she had made for the treatment. There she could conquer the minds of her students with her unparalleled teaching excellence.
She, later, completed her Post Graduation in English Literature at Kannur University with the fourth rank. Later, she worked for four years as a trainer for the Additional Skill Acquisition Program (ASAP) at the State Government.
Alphy’s life alone was enough to train the children in front of her. Everyone wants to see a living example that stands out above the examples in books. Alphy now has three children who call her ‘Mother’. She is their foster mother to whom God has entrusted to protect her in the path of life.
Jesus is Everything for Me
Jesus was always with Alphy in all the dark hours of life, in the midst of ridicule, trampling, and emotional stress. “I have a younger brother. His name is Clint. I’m seven years older than him, so I’m treating him like a sister and I always wanted to be in the shade of an elder brother. I have my own imagination of how He should be: My own brother with jeans, a beard, long hair, and a ponytail. I never hide anything from Him. There is no one else who understands me so much. No one but Him has seen the depths of my tears, the waves of my mind. From an early age, my parents used to take me through all the retreat centers and prayer groups for healing. This is what laid the foundation for my spirituality. Holy Communion is my emotional attachment to Jesus. Jesus who knows Alphy’s ‘A’ to ‘Z’ is coming through the Holy Communion. That blissful belief guides me, “said Alphy.
Meanwhile, Alphy cleared the NET with a Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) in English and currently, she is preparing to become a research student at the University of Pondicherry. Alphy is satisfied with her life. She gladly accepted all the conditions God had given her.
“I think God has written in my body the language of His divine love, because that is how I gained people, and that is how I grew up, so I have no complaints with the Lord, but I do not ask God why you did this to me, but I say with a solemn promise that His works are to be manifested through me.”
The great reassurance, consideration, love, and care given by her parents, siblings, friends, and teachers have helped her to sustain the life of Alphy.
“Looking back, I have no regrets. I do not complain to God that He could have given me a better life, but I do tell people that when I leave this world and reach Lord, I hold on to that beard and ask, ‘Didn’t you do this to me because I was? ‘ There is a story that the lamb could not walk, he was born crippled and the Lord took it on his shoulder because it could not walk with the others.
I have nothing to say. Some lameness is a stroke of great luck. It is a fortune to be with Lord always. If I had to run like everyone else, I may be walking on this earth. Maybe others are looking at my lameness. But what I see is a world of sitting on the Lord’s shoulder. I’m happy there. I entrust this to you because I have faith in Him. He too believes that I do not shame the Lord. It should not be discarded. My responsibility is to make my beautiful life the most beautiful I can “- says Alphy confidently.
Alphy is a reference book for those who deny God and lose confidence in the small frustrations of life. Even if the whole world calls her shortcomings flawed, that is her greatest strength. Alphy, who could have been confined to one room with a sense of inferiority, was a triumphant slogan before this world. The Catholic News team wishes prayers to Alphy, who becomes, the icon of self-confidence.
Sunisha V.F.Â