Blast victim has future in safe hands

After the results were out yesterday, her mobile phone has not stopped ringing. And with her myo-electric hand, she keeps buzzing SMS messages to her friends and relatives. ‘‘She is much faster on the SMS than most of us,’’ declares her aunt, Kalpana.

However, in the public examination, she did not wish to take a chance and used a scribe. With a quiet smile, she shows her myo-electric hands fitted with two sensors run on rechargeable batteries and lets her memory roll back her memory to May 26, 2002, when the grenade ripped off her hands. It happened on a quiet day in Bikaner, Rajasthan, where her father worked as a state government official. Like any other curious child, Malvika, was meddling with the ‘‘stuff’’ that had landed in her house from the nearby ammunition depot a year ago. ‘‘I thought it was a defused grenade and had stored it in my showcase. It was actually empty. I did not think it would explode,’’ she recalls.

But, suddenly, there was a defeaning explosion and the next moment, her hands were severed and legs badly injured. Her parents brought Malvika to their home town, Chennai for treatment. ‘‘It was a rebirth for her,’’ says her mother, Hema Krishnan.

And the spunky girl that she was, she recovered and enrolled in a private coaching center for the 10th exam. ‘‘I knew I would get centum in Maths and Science. Actually, my marks are not a surprise to me. It’s the attention from the media and (political) leaders that surprises me,’’ she told The Indian Express. Today she had appointment with the DMK president, M. Karunanidhi, who presented her a cash award of Rs 1 lakh, followed by a meeting with the new Union Health Minister, and PMK leader, R.Anbumani. Though she has scored centum in Science, Malvika wants to take up commerce in Plus one, and probably become a chartered accountant. ‘‘But mom wants me to do IAS,’’ she says.

But her priority now is to go back to a regular school and resume her Kathak classes. ‘‘I love to dance,’’ she says.