if you’ve been following me for a while, you probably know that i broke my foot in my final semester of engineering. (february 2023). if you haven’t, allow me to introduce you to one of the most ridiculous chapters of my life.
it was a completely normal day. i was coming back from a store to a metro station. my best friend was driving the scooty. and then... well. my foot and the road got a little too familiar with each other.
0/10 experience. would not recommend.
i ended up with a fractured ankle, a plaster, and a very sudden change of plans for what my final semester was supposed to look like. while everyone else was attending classes, submitting assignments and preparing for graduation, i was learning exciting new skills such as:
- how to shower with one functional leg
- how to carry art supplies while hopping
- how to answer customer messages while trying not to cry
- how to aggressively ignore pain
the injury was bad enough that i missed a large part of the semester. when exam season arrived, i gave my engineering exams in a wheelchair. which, if i’m being honest, felt very dramatic. many people in college knew who i was, because i was kinda sorta famous on instagram, and people knew i was running my small business thingy whilst being a college student. so i felt like a main character, except for the fact that the main character would have a broken foot is not something i’d hoped for.
my male friends picked me up to bring me to the first floor of my college building… complete bollywood style. and i must say they’re pretty strong because i’m most definitely not a lightweight object, never have been. xD (thank you, siddharth and aman. y’all strong asf).
exams in wheelchair felt like i had accidentally signed up for the world’s least glamorous parade. but life, unfortunately, does not pause because your bones decide to fall apart.
orders still came in.
customers were still waiting.
paintings still needed to be packed.
so i kept working.
i still remember one particular day when i shipped 19 parcels.
nineteen.
with a broken leg.
looking back, i genuinely don’t know whether that was dedication or stupidity. probably both.
at the time, i kept telling myself that once the plaster came off, everything would go back to normal.
spoiler alert: it did not.
6 months later, scans revealed that one of the fractured bones had never properly healed, because it was crushed. literally.
the diagnosis was a non-union. which is a very fancy medical way of saying: “congratulations, your bone has decided not to participate.” and honestly? that feels on brand for my life.
the accident happened years ago, but the injury is still with me. it is still swollen. it still pains. sometimes it’s extreme swelling + extreme pain; because apparently my ankle enjoys multitasking.
but when i think back to that month, i don’t remember the plaster first. i remember the paintings. i remember packing orders. i remember finishing my degree. i remember how my best friend cried that night in the hospital: because he thought i’d never speak to him again. i remember both of us being in wheelchairs. xD (ps: we still talk; i’m not the kinda person who’d blame my friend and stop talking when it wasn’t even his fault. ik you’re reading this satyam, and we good. always have been.)
but most of all: i remember refusing to let everything stop.
i don’t think that month proved that i’m strong. (it did though xD). i think it proved that human beings are capable of functioning on an absolutely absurd amount of determination and denial.
and if you’ve ever received an artwork from me during that period, (february & march 2023), there’s a non-zero chance it was packed by a sleep-deprived engineering student balancing on one leg and surviving purely on stubbornness.
somehow, it still got delivered.
(special thankss: satyam, siddharth, aman, durgesh, for helping me out in this hard time. i wouldn’t have made it to the washroom without y’all xD)
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