The Covid Generation

How 2020 will reshape their approach to love, life and everything in between

- Sonali Acharjee

PRATISHTHA DEVESHWA, 21

BA (Hons) Pol. Sc. from LSR, Delhi; disability rights advocate, Hoshiarpur

LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE

“PEOPLE TRY TO REASSURE YOU, BUT YOU NEED TO FIND REASSURANCE FROM WITHIN, WHICH IS HARDER, BUT MORE POWERFUL”

She was 13 when an accident in her home-town of Hoshiarpur in Punjab left her paralysed from the neck downward. As several schools turned her away, all Pratishtha could see ahead of her was darkness. “I know what it is to be deprived of freedom and struggle to find hope,” she says. One would think it would prepare her for any challenge ahead, but when COVID broke out and her plans for higher education were put in temporary jeopardy, she felt that familiar dread wash over her again. “Nobody knew what would happen and, overnight, my friends were taken away from me. People try to reassure you but you need to find reassurance from within, which is harder but more powerful,” she says. Undeterred by adversity, Pratishtha kept applying for various master’s programmes abroad. In July, she was accepted into the public policy programme at Oxford University, becoming the first Indian wheelchair-bound student to attend the prestigious institute.