The massive financial award she had recently received from the government, together with the soaring high of the Paris Paralympics, had not yet worn off. She is still getting used to the drastic change in her life that has occurred in the last several months. It's incredible. It was five months ago that I had no one. "I now have four international medals," she states, alluding to her bronzes from the World Para Athletics Championships in the T35 100 and 200 meters as well as a brace of bronzes she won in the same events this month in Paris.

 

"It is difficult to forget where you have come from in times like these."  Preethi, her parents' second daughter, was born with malformed feet and lived in the hamlet of Hashampur in the Muzaffarnagar region of Uttar Pradesh. "Tell me, ek to ladki, upar se viklang," people would say. (Not only is she born disabled, but she is a female in the first place). I doubt that many people were content when I was born. Everybody yearned for a boy.  Her legs were cast within six months of her birth, but that didn't help with her posture much. Preethi used callipers for eight years after someone advised she wear them when she turned seven.

"I had a variety of treatments. My parents were determined to heal me even though I was referred to as a curse. They exerted all effort possible. It also meant caving in to odd customs, more out of desperation than anticipation. During a solar eclipse, Preeti was once tricked into standing in cow poo in the hopes that the combination of the eclipse and excrement would miraculously alter her legs. "My mum really thought it was possible. During the eclipse, she would cover me with cow poo up to my knees. Even though standing for hours on end hurt a lot, I was assured standing was a treatment.

 

Neither the quackery nor the rudimentary medical care her parents could afford proved effective. Preethi struggled to remain upright, as the villagers' insults came thick and fast. Even though she couldn't sit back and relax, she was beginning to exhibit the qualities of a track athlete. Preethi's parents sent their two daughters and two sons to live with their grandparents in Meerut as the years went by so they might receive a better education. "In school, athletics piqued my attention more than academics. I was really quick and would compete with kids who had better bodies. Since sprints necessitate running on the toes, my biggest weakness was also my greatest strength. I was naturally good at it," she remarked.