{"id":51900,"date":"2017-03-11T00:21:10","date_gmt":"2017-03-11T05:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=51900"},"modified":"2017-03-11T08:15:59","modified_gmt":"2017-03-11T13:15:59","slug":"lost-her-arms-in-shelling-but-teaches-visual-basic-operating-computer-with-her-toes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=51900","title":{"rendered":"Lost Her Arms in Shelling But Teaches Visual Basic Operating Computer With Her Toes."},"content":{"rendered":"

By
\nMeera Srinivasan<\/strong><\/p>\n

Few students in Vadamarachchi, part of Sri Lanka\u2019s northern peninsula, had heard of Visual Basic until Sebastian Selvanayagi started offering a course in it at her modest computer centre.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Selvanayagi teaches computing. | Photo Credit: Meera Srinivasan<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cEven basic programming languages haven\u2019t come to our village in a big way,\u201d she said, entering a small room in her home, in Vetrilaikeni in Vadamarachchi East, where five desktop computers are kept.<\/p>\n

As her office assistant switched one of the systems on, Ms. Selvanayagi sat down and quickly typed the password with her toes. That is how she has been typing for more than 20 years now \u2014 placing the keyboard under the table \u2014 after she lost both her arms in intense shelling in 1990. She was around 15 then, and preparing to take her O-level (class X) examination.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe LTTE took complete care of me after that. I stayed with them and did programming and data entry work. That became my world,\u201d Ms. Selvanayagi, 42, said.
\n
\n\u2018Helped by LTTE\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

She pursued computer science at the Open University and upgraded her skills. \u201cI got my education because the LTTE and others supported me. Education has value only when it is shared \u2014 that is what I am doing now,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

A pile of books, with titles like \u2018Visual Basic\u2019, \u2018DTP Course Kit\u2019 and \u2018Programming in C – a primer\u2019 sat on a wooden stool in her living room.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got them from India; that was one good thing that came out of that trip,\u201d she laughed.<\/p>\n

In 2012, three years after the war ended, she went to Chennai to try out prosthetic limbs. \u201cThey were uncomfortable and didn\u2019t seem suitable for use in a humid climate like ours. Moreover, they were expensive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms. Selvanayagi now manages her tasks with full-time help from a caretaker and her guardians \u2014 her father\u2019s friends \u2014 who have been caring for her since his passing.<\/p>\n

Every evening a group of students comes for the classes, as part of the National Vocational Qualification programme of the government.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am determined to work and fend for myself. I don\u2019t look back. I don\u2019t judge the Tigers politically. My loyalty to them is very personal.\u201d
\n
\nCourtesy:The Hindu<\/em><\/p>\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Meera Srinivasan Few students in Vadamarachchi, part of Sri Lanka\u2019s northern peninsula, had heard of Visual Basic until Sebastian Selvanayagi started offering a course in it at her modest computer centre. \u201cEven basic programming languages haven\u2019t come to our village in a big way,\u201d she said, entering a small room in her home, in …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Lost Her Arms in Shelling But Teaches Visual Basic Operating Computer With Her Toes.’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51900"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=51900"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51900\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51911,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51900\/revisions\/51911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=51900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=51900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=51900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}