Acid attack warrior, Anmol Rodriguez is an inspiration to all of us and her courage has left people spellbound! When she was just 2 months old, her very own father threw acid at her mother. She was lying in her mother’s lap at the time and was a victim of the attack. Her mother succumbed to injuries from the burn.
Anmol had to spend 5 years at the hospital, fighting, struggling with permanent scars and injuries. But at the hospital, she was treated like their very own, they were her family and her hope. Soon Anmol was sent to an orphanage which provided for her education and all her needs.
But the twist in her story was when she had to move out of the orphanage. After completing 18 years of age, the orphanage asks children to live on their own. All the while she was there, she gained the best education. She was a rank holder in college but her struggle was on a personal level. The college kids didn’t really want to be friends with her and getting through college life was painful. Staring at her like it was just her face they saw and not her as a person. She was human at the end of the day but nobody gave it a thought. Crossing hurdles on her way, she graduated with a bachelor’s in computer degree.
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As I mentioned before, there was no full stop. She got a job after a lot of rejections but had to leave the place in just 2 months as everyone focused on her face and again failed to look at her as a person. In an interview with Curly Tales, Anmol said, “I was asked to leave because people said my face did not let them concentrate on their work.”
She had to look for something else, meanwhile, she got herself a new phone and discovered the joy of social media. She started posting her pictures and getting an overwhelming amount of support. But there is only so much social media can provide, tangibility was still very far.
“I wanted to be on camera and act, or model. My friend and manager Megha started helping me in this process,” Anmol said. People, more importantly, brands started noticing her profile and got her to do some endorsements. She launched a new line of clothing for Clovia. She featured in a short film, ‘Aunty Ji’ with Shabana Azmi! Soon she started Ted Talks, Ramp Walk for brands among many other things.
Her journey moves forward today as she works with Kineer, an organization that works for the LGBTQ community. People will always look, stare! Anmol fought those stares, broke the stereotypes and rose above all the hate that came her way. She has been through something she never deserved. But instead of crying at her fate, she smiled at the opportunities that came her way.