Rajanna-Sircilla: Gritty writer loses battle with life

A differently-abled writer from Sircilla, Boora Rajeshwari passed away with ill-health on Wednesday.

Rajanna-Sircilla: A differently-abled writer from Sircilla, Boora Rajeshwari passed away with ill-health on Wednesday. Rajeshwari, who was suffering from neuron related health problems for the past sometime, breathed her last in her KCR colony residence in Manepalli in the afternoon. She was 40.

Rajeshwari, who used to write poems with her toes, got appreciation from different sections of the society for continuing writing by overcoming disability. The inspiring story of Rajeshwari was also introduced in the curriculum of Maharashtra. The lesson titled ‘Sircilla Rajeshwari’ was incorporated in the second language (Telugu) of Intermediate second year syllabus in the last academic year.

Moved by the poor financial condition of the poor writer, the state government sanctioned Rs 10 lakh to her besides allocating a double bedroom house in KCR housing colony. She had also been provided a Rs 10,000 pension every month. Local MLA and IT and Municipal Administration Minister, KT Rama Rao took initiatives to provide benefits to Rajeshwari.

Born in 1980, she is the third child of a poor weaver couple Sambaiah and Anasurya. Both the arms of Rajeshwari became non-functional as she was born with hand anomalies disease. Moreover, she had not walked till the age of 15 years. Instead of getting discouraged, she practiced writing with toes and started going to school along with her friends. She studied till Class 7 in the local government school. She did her SSC through open school before completing Intermediate.

Passionate on literature, she started writing poems on various social issues such as problems of weavers, farmers, nature and others. So far, she has penned more than 800 poems. Recognizing her talent, popular Telugu lyricist Suddala Ashok Teja published her poems in the name of ‘Sircilla Rajeshwari Kavithalu’ through his Suddala foundation and also honored her with Suddala Hanumanthu award in 2015.

Besides writing, she uses her toes even for brushing her teeth, combing hair and holding a spoon to eat food. Initially, her mother used to help her. However, she stopped depending on mother and started doing her work without depending on others.

When the story of Rajeshwari was published in Telangana Today on January 17, 2021, the Minister Rama Rao posted a message on his twitter account stating that “Proud that the gritty story of Rajeshwari, a differently-abled writer from Sircilla is inspiring MH youngsters”.

Rama Rao requested Education Minister Sabitha Indra Reddy and education department Special Chief Secretary Chitr Ramchandran to consider including such real life inspirational stories in Telangana education curriculum.