Today: Kalpana Ghodawat, a brave acid attack survivor, who runs a beauty parlour. Kalpana has undergone at least 100 surgeries, but feels one must always love life. Her favourite place in the world, she says, is her beauty parlour where she loves making women look more beautiful. We salute her courage!
I wake up early and go to my shop by 9 am. It is a grocery shop which belongs to my son.
I am there till 9 pm. It is near my home. I also run a beauty parlour at home. When a client comes home, I leave the shop and attend to her. The parlour is only for ladies.
I had only studied up to the 10th standard when I was married. My husband was a heavy drinker and so I did a beautician's course to look after my family.
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- 'Why are we in a mad rush all the time'
- Meet the first Kashmiri IPS officer and where she's headed next
My husband did not like me working in a beauty parlour even though it was my own. He used to threaten me that he would throw acid on me. I did not believe him. I was very beautiful.
One day in the morning around 9 am I was getting ready to go to the parlour. He had kept the bottle of acid in the toilet. I had not seen it. He poured the acid over my head.
Every third day, a woman is attacked with acid in India. Illustration: Uttam Ghosh
For 4 to 5 months I could not see myself. I was kept in a dark room in a hospital in Sangli. For one year I was treated at the Sangli hospital. I could not go out. There were no mirrors in my room.
When I saw my face for the first time after the acid attack, I screamed and lost consciousness. I cried for two months after that. My friends suggested that I should go to a hospital in Mumbai.
We met plastic surgeon Dr Ashok Gupta who said he will treat me step by step.
He first re-constructed my nose, then my eyebrows, then hair was fixed on my forehead. I only had a patch of hair remaining, it was at the back of my head.
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