Having faith

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My name is Shambhavi Ravishankar and I'm from Bangalore, India. I live in New Delhi. I am 24 years old. Neither of my parents (or anyone in the family that we know of) have ALGS and I have a younger brother who also doesn't have ALGS. I've moved around a lot to different cities in India and I've lived in Singapore too. My areas of interest include swimming, reading everything under the sun, writing, eating, walking, and working with clay. I love to make masks and pots with clay. 

 

My life with ALGS has been challenging as is expected. I wasn't diagnosed with it until I was 5 years old. In India, at the time, there wasn't too much information on it. By stroke of luck we found my doctor Dr. Anupam Sibal in Delhi and things began to stabilize with my condition. I still get yearly checkups with him even though I'm doing so much better now.

Through school I was always a fan of the arts. World affairs and history especially. As a result of a natural progression I took law as my undergraduate program. My course began in 2010 in Christ University, Bangalore and I graduated in May 2015. I will get my BBA.LL.B (Hons.) degree. My summer vacations have begun and all of my course work is over. The fact that I'm graduating as a Lawyer excites me and relieves me so much. I feel lucky and grateful to have come so far. I finished my Post Graduation in Human Rights Law in December 2016, in the UK. It was wonderful year, where I met so many people and got to study, work a little, and travel a bit too!

I think the one thing that kept me going through all of my challenges was my love for learning. I love to read and investigate and that love has transferred to writing and publishing articles and legal papers in journals. The idea that I can contribute to the existing literature on various topics, so as to increase the quality of academic debate, encourages me to continue on the path of intellectual development. Writing poetry and short articles/stories to inspire hope and bring relief is something I love to do as well. I believe in living in the moment and loving whatever it is you are doing. Passion is what will get you through any challenge. I strongly believe if your mind is channeled appropriately it will help you to transcend any bodily worries or troubles. At least in my case that's what happened. A good education and learning environment with my parents really set the bar of excellence for me. They never let me think of myself as a victim or as someone less than anybody else. 

I want to give hope to people with ALGS and other rare disorders and contribute in some meaningful way to their lives. My family and I didn't have a lot of help while I was growing up and we dealt with our challenges alone without any knowledge whatsoever. I want to be able to reach out to people even if it is just to talk and vent out their frustrations.

Never lose hope. Create your own kind of normal. People may not always understand what you're going through but that can't be a reason to stop you from doing the things you want to do. It's your life, so live it ️such that you enrich yourself and the people who love you. That's my mantra for living a happy life. I hope it will give me the chance to connect with more people within the ALGS community.

Please feel free to email me at [email protected]