Attacked with acid at two-months-old, Anmol Rodriguez’s story is one of thriving, not surviving
Meet the acid attack survivor taking over the world, one social media follower at a time
Two-month-old Anmol Rodriguez was being breastfed by her mother when her father, livid at his wife for bringing a baby girl into the world, attacked them with acid. With her mother’s death and her father being sent to prison, Rodriguez lost her chance at an ordinary life.
But Anmol was never a fan of the ordinary. Today, the 25-year-old stands proud as a social media influencer and model with 122k followers on Instagram, and a posse of fans from around the world. She has collaborated with multiple brands, played showstopper for numerous fashion shows, and even acted in a short film called Aunty Ji (2018) with Shabana Azmi—which won her the ‘Best Performance Female’ award at Casttree Film Festival in 2018.
It took a host of failures, self-esteem repair, and a shift in her mindset for Rodriguez to rise above the tragedy that could have controlled her life. Instead of focussing on it, she defines her childhood by her love for Poo from Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham (2001), her adolescence by her admiration for Priyanka Chopra, and her adulthood by her own success and self-confidence.
Rodriguez grew up in an orphanage, which she describes as the only environment where she felt safe and nurtured. “I never realised I was different till I was unleashed into the real world. I have only happy memories of my orphanage. I had four friends who were very close to me, and I never thought I would be treated any different than them,” she remembers. Once she enrolled at the SNDT Women’s University in Mumbai, Rodriguez’s worldview altered significantly. Unpleasant glances and whispering passers-by marked her 15-minute walk from home to the college campus. An average day at university meant attending all lectures while her peers ‘bunked’ them to hang out at cafes, and hiding away at home after-hours.
But Rodriguez wanted to experience college life in its fullness, with the rebellion it often comes with. The inability to do this led her into depression, which eventually caused her to drop out. Soon, a tutor started schooling Rodriguez at home, which brought positive reinforcement. “My tutor really helped me to see the light. She not only taught me to focus on myself and my goals, but also helped me graduate university and find a job,” she says.
Two months into her first job as a software developer, Rodriguez was fired for “distracting my co-workers”. “One fine day, I was notified that I didn’t have to show up at work anymore. They didn’t even tell me the reason. It was only when I asked a few days later that I was told that my face had been causing distress to my co-workers.”
It was then that something fundamentally changed inside Rodriguez, and she decided to take control of her situation. Rather than being a passive victim of her circumstances, Rodriguez found agency in a medium that’s truly democratic––social media. “I was the first acid attack survivor to share photos of herself on social media. At that time, Facebook was the popular tool. My friends didn’t think it was a good idea at first. They thought people would troll me. But what it got me was appreciation and positive responses instead.” Brands and designers started taking notice of her, and reached out for shows and modelling assignments. Eventually, Instagram entered the equation, and thus began her career as an influencer.
“I mostly post unfiltered content because I want to disrupt the notion that one must only present their most refined or beautified self on social media. It’s not like I don’t get flak for it. People do troll me and post negative comments. But I’m always mindful of the fact that it’s a virtual space, so I never take anything to heart,” says Rodriguez. Her utopian vision is one where both men and women are uninhibited by any physical shortcomings, and present their most confident selves to the world, along with, not inspite of, those shortcomings. International beauty collaborations are her next pitstop, because she believes it is time the beauty industry stepped up the inclusivity to empower abuse victims.
Talking about Deepika Padukone’s upcoming film, Chhapaak, Rodriguez revealed that watching the scene from the trailer where acid is poured on the protagonist was especially emotional for her—because she doesn’t remember her own incident. “I get goosebumps every time a survivor recalls the pain they went through at that moment. I also can’t imagine the level of hatred someone must breed to commit such a heinous crime. In a way, I’m glad I don’t remember my own episode––my trauma would definitely be augmented if I did,” she says.
And what does she hope for Chhapaak to achieve? “I’ve only ever witnessed two kinds of attitudes from society––sympathy or ignorance. I want to overturn these into empathy, acceptance and compassion. I want people to see and relate to and understand how much change one tragedy can cause. The survivor is already struggling to accept their own redefined identity, and they shouldn’t have to grapple to win the acceptance of the society,” she concludes.
This article originally appeared on Vogue.in
