Ashalatha A comes across as one among the hundreds of vloggers posting cooking videos, travel diaries, interviews, motivational talks, book reviews etc. But being visually-challenged, Asha stands out as a motivation for her followers.
While her Instagram handle, @vipassana_by_asha, has 97.5k followers, her YouTube page, Vipassana Vlog by Ashalatha, has 199k subscribers. “I don’t want to be a role model. I want to show that I can do many things that a person with vision can do so as to motivate visually-challenged persons and their families,” says Asha, a native of Ravaneshwaram in Kasaragod district in Kerala.
“I am what I am because of my family because they have never treated me as a person with a disability,” says Asha, referring to her parents, TC Damodaran and A Malini, her husband, Sreedharan Unni, and her three sons, Nandakishore, Amal Kishore and Arjun Kishore. A teacher for the last 25 years, the 49-year-old teaches Sociology at Government Higher Secondary School at Ravaneshwaram.
Asha adds, “I have never studied at a school for the visually-challenged. In my growing up years I could differentiate darkness and light, but couldn’t see colours or figures. I don’t know if that can be counted as having vision. Gradually that also went away.”
Aiming high
Asha says that it was her father who encouraged her to study and get a job. She finished TTC (Teachers’ Training Certificate) course, graduation, post graduation and B.Ed (Bachelor of Education) before clearing SET (State Eligibility Test) to become a teacher. “It was while pursuing my studies that I got married and started a family. It was not easy but I was lucky that I had my family around to take care of my children,” she says.
Although Asha used to do most of the household chores, she had never tried cooking before her marriage. “When I got married at the age of 20, I felt that I had to cook. I was trying to be the stereotypical Indian woman, who is expected to know cooking and all household work when she becomes a wife. My husband never insisted that I should cook. But I was adamant about doing it. I used to make pickles but wasn’t confident about cooking on a kerosene stove. However, things became quite smooth once we got a gas stove, which I believe is safe for a visually-challenged person,” she stresses.
Being a vlogger
It was during the second lockdown that she thought about turning a vlogger. “I believe that all, irrespective of gender, should know household work. I started making videos mainly because society has a lot of doubts about how people like me would go about our daily chores, especially cooking. The reality is that there are several visually challenged people who cook with ease. The popular show, Masterchef, even had a visually challenged person who won in one season. Cooking is no big deal for us. It is easier when compared to cleaning, washing or other activities. I wanted to take that message to society,” she says.
Asha mentions that through the travel videos, she wants to encourage the visually-challenged to come out of their shell and explore the world. Besides interviewing achievers from various fields, she regularly discusses books and uploads book reviews. “Technology has massively changed our lives. I make use of various apps to browse my social media handles and reply to comments. When it comes to books, there are several WhatsApp groups where volunteers post audio notes of the books we want to read,” Asha says.
She has ensured that the viewers get a complete picture of her life thus far through videos featuring her parents, siblings, husband and family members. “My father is my biggest cheerleader, whereas my mother critically analyses everything. My son, Amal, shoots and edits the videos. I have no disability as far as my sons are concerned. I keep telling them to be independent and not expect me to do everything for them!” she laughs.
The topics she has chosen range from subjects such as how she drapes a sari and selects matching earrings to serious ones, such as using a menstrual cup, her concept of colours and differentiating currency.
Before signing off, Asha adds that negative comments do pop up among the hundreds of positive comments on her pages. “Some say that I can see and I am fooling people! Why would I do that? Let them come home and see for themselves!”
