Durga is the most dexterous and most powerful goddess among the Hindu pantheon of goddesses. Every year, tens of millions of people worship her in a 10-day-long puja called Durga Puja. She is depicted in paintings and pictures as the goddess with eight or ten hands.

In each of her hands, she holds a weapon, believed to have been given to her to fight one of the most powerful “demons” in Hindu mythology. In short, her power stems from her multiple hands. The more the hands and the more weapons you wield, the more powerful you are! 

Now imagine a scenario where Durga is without her arms! Would she have been able to slay Mahishasura? Let’s not speculate. Let’s, instead, turn to Jilumol Mariet Thomas, born without hands in a hospital at Thodupuzha in Idukki district in Kerala.

The gynaecologist into whose hands she was born was shocked to notice that the baby’s hands were missing. The nurses who attended to her, too, were in a deep shock. It is unimaginable how shocked her parents — NV Thomas and Annakutty — were when the baby was handed over to them. 

Yesterday, I saw the picture of a beaming billionaire Mukesh Ambani holding his newly-born grandchild, wrapped in a towel. Such scenes are replicated by the thousands at the hospitals all over the world. No, Thomas and Annakutty were not in a similar state of mind when they unwrapped the baby and saw that she was sans hands.

The gynaecologist made an offer to Thomas that she was ready to adopt her, if only the couple were willing to give the baby to her. “No chance” was how Thomas bravely and bluntly reacted to the proposal.

Everybody who saw the baby or heard about her pitied the parents, for they mistakenly thought that she would grow up into a useless person, a drain on their limited resources. They gave the child the kind of warmth and care only her own parents could give. Alas, when she reached age four, a catastrophic incident happened. 

She lost her mother Annakutty to the “Emperor of all Maladies”, as cancer was described by its Pulitzer-winning biographer. As is my wont, I try to find out the meaning of a new name I hear. Google Guru failed to help me in the case of Jilumol.

Of course, I could find out what each letter in her name stood for.  J is for jewel, the sparkle in your eye. I is for ideals, no higher! L is for little, the little things you do, U is for unite, you bring people together. M is for mirth, your laughter. O is for original, one of a kind! and L is for loyalty, that you show.

I had a long conversation with Jilumol on the phone and she came across as a person who is worthy of the descriptions mentioned in the previous paragraph. A turning point in her life happened when her grandmother scattered a pile of books with her foot.

Anyone who would have seen the lady doing it would have been scandalised, for in our culture, it is sinful to touch a book with one’s foot. In fact, I grew up making a cross sign as a sign of atonement every time I accidentally stepped on a book or a magazine or a printed or written sheet.

The grandmother knew that such cultural rules were for the ordinary, not for an extraordinary person like Jilumol. That day, the grandma taught her a lesson, in fact, the greatest lesson she ever learnt in her life. She should learn to use her legs in place of her missing hands.

It was to teach her this lesson that she scattered the books that day. Jilumol was given a task. She should pick up each book with her foot and toes and nicely pile them up. 

Initially it was difficult to hold a book between the big toe, known as the hallux, and the second toe known as the long toe. It was indeed a difficult task but she managed to stack the books as nicely as anyone with hands would have done. 

For once, she learnt that her legs were not just for walking but also to do sundry jobs like holding a book or a mobile phone or combing her hair.

Jilumol was indeed coming of age. The sudden death of her mother and the economic condition of the family forced Thomas to send her to Mercy Home run by the Catholic nuns. It was a blessing in disguise for her, as she was no longer alone and brooding over her circumstances. 

She had new friends, some of them with varying degrees of disability. Each had her own challenges. The sisters were there to instil confidence in them to do all their routine jobs themselves. She was especially thankful to one particular person, Sister Mariella, who trained her to do what was considered humanely impossible.

She learnt to her great delight that the books she was taught to pick up with her foot contained knowledge that would, sooner than later, transform her life. She proved to be a good student, who learnt as quickly as she was taught. She learnt how to hold a pencil between her toes and write on a sheet of paper.

Her handwriting was out of the ordinary. That is when she was taught how to hold the pencil between her toes and draw and paint. She began winning prizes and her drawings began to be considered worthy of possession. She might not have become a Van Gogh or a Shobha Singh or an Amrita Shergill but she has certainly become Jilumol, the artist!

As mentioned, she was good at studies. When she secured 88 per cent marks in the Secondary School Leaving Certificate (SSLC) examination, it did not surprise her teachers for they knew that she was destined for greater achievements. They also remembered how quickly she had learnt the basics of computer and how she even managed the class in the absence of the teacher.

Her fellow students felt more comfortable clearing their doubts about computing with Jilumol than with the teacher. As could be imagined, she took to computing as duck  would to water. The little mouse she controlled with her toes opened to her the wondrous world of art and graphics and she never looked back.

After she did her +2 course, she opted to do a bachelor course in animation. I realised how difficult animation is when I visited the studios of the cartoon serial The Simpsons in Hollywood, Los Angeles, USA. 

They had over 100 cartoonists drawing cartoons to produce the serial. Once photographed and shown in a series at a particular speed, the pictures appear as moving images on the screen. Computer animation means the manipulation of electronic images by means of a computer in order to create moving images. 

Jilumol did the course admirably well. Education alone will not fetch an income. For that you have to get a job or do a business. That is when she realised how a disabled person like her had to face innumerable difficulties in getting a job. “While applying for a job, I would never hide the fact about my disability. When I attend interviews, I realise that they interview me in a different way.

“Instead of finding out whether I could do the job or not, they would reject me on such specious grounds as I did not have adequate experience. When they find that I have experience, they will say that they need a fresher, not an experienced one like me”.

Rejections never disheartened, let alone disillusioned her. It is not that she did not get a job. She worked at a few places where she received support and encouragement from her colleagues. 

Today, Jilumol is known more for her ability to drive a car than for her knowledge to manipulate the movement of a stationary object on the computer screen.

In fact, I had seen a video in which she opens a Maruti car, sits in the driver’s seat, puts on the seat belt, switches on the engine, presses the accelerator and turns the steering wheel and drives the car like a consummate driver. For all this she uses just her legs!

Anyone who had seen her driving would have been pleasantly shocked. She could not have been taught driving by any driver for there is no driving school where the instructor uses his legs to teach driving. So, she had to learn it herself like she learnt how to brush her teeth, wear clothes, put on socks and make her bed using her legs.

Try brushing your teeth without using your hands to realise how difficult such routine things as eating food and drinking water are without hands. Even for learning driving, a licence is required. Fortunately, rules do not say how the learning can be done.

Learner’s licence is not very difficult to get but in her case it was an uphill task. Driving became a passion for her. May be because she did not have hands, she saw driving with great admiration. While going to school, she had the privilege of sitting in the front seat of the van.

Her eyes were always on the driver, how he changed the gear, turned the steering wheel, accelerated and decelerated the vehicle. When she applied for a learner’s licence, she was asked to show one precedent in India where an armless person was given such a licence.

She found out that a person at Indore in Madhya Pradesh had obtained a driving licence but he was not willing to help her. It is not that people were not willing to help her. 

A lawyer, Shinie Varghese, came forward to help her the legal way. She was finally asked by the Transport Department to show her ability to learn driving in an altered car. She did not have the kind of money needed to buy a car and alter it to her specifications. The local Lions Club came forward to gift her a car.

A Maruti automatic Celeron car was made available to her. The accelerator and brake pedals were raised to enable her to access them. She could drive them comfortably but a licence remained a distant dream.

The transport authorities were not willing to accept the altered car. They said the alteration was not acceptable. In fact, they refused registration to the car as it was altered. Finally, the car was registered as an ordinary car. While the Central government has been favourable to her, it is the state government which has been resisting her plea. 

In effect, water has been poured over her dream of driving a car on the roads in Kerala. True, she has a car and she can use it by employing a driver. However, she does not have the wherewithal to do so. Her ambition remains grounded like the Maruti Celeron she owns.

Jilumol stays at the YWCA hostel at Ernakulam. She lost her job when the lockdown was imposed following the outbreak of the Corona pandemic. She manages to earn some money by giving inspirational talks. Who else can inspire a person better than her?

Laced with her own personal experiences, such talks are well-received but they are not sufficient to make a living. When the Kerala Government cannot give her a driving licence, why can’t it give her a job which will fetch her money, sufficient enough to employ a driver also?

In any case, Jilumol has proved that neither success is final, nor failure fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts.  She never cried because she knew she did not have hands to wipe her tears. Once she gets a driving licence, she will create a record of her own which few will ever be able to replicate, let alone improve upon. 

ajphilip@gmail.com