Jasavur write a book of fantasy called Prithvi Part 2
For Santhosh, finding out your purpose in life is a rewarding task. “Life is always challenging and every moment brings something new.
The most challenging is about our purpose in life.
Once you find your purpose, you will be very happy with your life.
So, after completing my degree, I will try to find my purpose,” he says with an expression of true determination.
Seeing Santhosh’s joy at finding the book, Adnan Farooqui enquired about his unique reading technique.
“The great thing about the book was that it was the only book which I had to read for a year.
All the others had been returned.
My father couldn’t understand my passion for books and he used to get upset when I returned my books.
One day he said, ‘Kunjan, now that you have become a doctor, your hobby should be medical’,” recalls the young man.
“I used to make up stories about books so that I would always remember them. While my father supported my passion for books, I did not get any support from my mother.
I wrote my graduation project on the ‘Practitioner-Patient Relationship in the Clinical setting’.
It was also a chance for me to find out what is really behind doctor’s eyes and the things they do.” During his graduation, Santhosh also worked in a nursing home. “I got more than a few startling experiences working there.
My supervisors were so cruel that I wanted to quit but, at that time, the desire to become a doctor was still very strong in me.
While working as a houseman at a nursing home, Santhosh felt like he was ‘lost’. “I felt completely uninterested in nursing.
Whenever we were left alone with the patients, I used to think of my own family and our problems. Then I made up my mind to become a doctor,” he says.
The quest to become a doctor was the second thing Santhosh had to fight for as he lost the first one when he was four years old. “My mother, G. Pushpa, had me only after several complications.
She was admitted in the Women’s Hospital in Nagercoil and after spending many days in the ICU, she gave birth to me and a few days later, developed fever.
When I was three months old, my mother wanted to take me back to my father’s home, but it was against the Medical Council of India (MCI) rules. She lost her job and that was the end of my schooling.
My mother could only support me with the amount that she received from her pension.
She also had to take loans from a few people to pay for my school fees,” Santhosh says.
He never knew that his mother was arrested by the police in a false case. “That was the year I lost my mother.
I still don’t understand how my mother was arrested. There were no traces of any disturbance in our home.
My mother was at work when she collapsed. On the hospital’s admission card, I have a photo of my mother and a copy of her Aadhaar card, which mentioned her name as Pushpa Swaminathan,” he says.
This is the first time that Santhosh has interacted with the media.
Though he is aware of the enormous struggle people from Kerala have to go through, he is afraid of being asked to divulge any details about his real identity. “People are ready to set me and my family on fire.
They will not hesitate to kill us. I fear if I reveal my name, I will be killed. Who will take care of my family,” he says.
Santhosh does not remember where he was born.
He remembers his maternal uncle and mother’s two younger brothers living with his grandparents. His mother was alone when she gave birth to him. “I grew up in a house of widows.
My maternal grandmother worked in a sewing unit. My maternal uncle also worked in the same unit,” he says.
His mother never told him about the struggles she had to undergo to provide for her family.
She also never informed him that his maternal uncle and two brothers had passed away. “When I was in Class 11, my grandfather died.
Two years later, my mother had a mild heart attack and went to the United States of America for treatment.
My uncle and his wife stayed here with my grandfather’s family.
They looked after us,” Santhosh recalls. “I finished Class 12 in four years and joined a coaching centre, where I cleared the 12th standard examination.
I found a good match for my engineering studies and left for Chennai in June 2014,” he says.
He was preparing for engineering in one of the top colleges of the city when he started to find out about social media.
His uncle was Facebook friends with some people who had considerable influence over him. “I came across an article on Facebook about gay sex. It was really disgusting. I called my uncle.
I asked him what was wrong with me. He started crying. He told me that my mother had told him about my condition,” he says. “I became very worried about my own life.
I knew I was attracted to men. I decided I would marry a woman, who would be my support and would have no problem with my sexuality,” he adds.
After joining the coaching centre, he found his life going downhill.
Some of his juniors tried to blackmail him into having sex with them, while some of his male classmates began to physically assault him on the pretext of sport.
Santhosh decided to put in his papers, but before he could do so, the cyber cell of the city police called him up.
They had received information that he was going to commit suicide on December 14. “They (cyber cell) reached my college in the evening and took me to the local police station. They recorded my statement.
The cyber cell people are the best.
I believe I will not feel any burden in my life now,” he says. Inspired by his survival story, city police commissioner N. Jayaram has now decided to extend a loan of Rs 2 lakh to Santhosh, so that he can begin his own coaching centre to teach children about the real world.
Late last month, cyber crime officers were busy apprehending a group of 50 WhatsApp text terrorists, mostly college and university students.
Santhosh is currently pursuing his bachelor’s degree from Sree Sankara College of Commerce in Kottayam. In spite of how bad his life had become, he says he was lucky to get the better of the bullies. “For me, it is important that I am alive.
If I had committed suicide like my fellow students did, the only pain I would have felt would have been to leave my two little sisters behind.
It was my elder sister who decided to register a complaint at the police station. So I am thankful that she is here with me now,” says Santhosh. Santhosh has lost all his friends and family to bullying. “No one knows what has happened to them, so I do not want to talk about it.
Of course, it is not easy to live with all this.
However, when I was forced to take up shooting, I thought that it would take my mind off my physical pain.
I never knew that I would make it this far,” he says, smiling, as he puffs away on his cigarette. Santhosh will soon go back to college.
“I love studies and so, I want to study harder and make something of myself in life.”
Also read: Inside Kerala’s
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