Meenal Chandra Acharya

Short Bio

Myself Meenal Chandra Acharya, 33 from Pune. I hold the lineage of that of  malayali parents who relocated to Pune after their marriage. My dad who is basically hailing from Kottayam, at his very young age, he was brought up in Mumbai. My mom was brought up in Kerala and she's a housewife. My dad worked as Accountant in Oman and Kingdom of Bahrain from where I completed my schooling and graduation by opting Commerce with Multimedia.

Being a person with Congenital Muscular Dystrophy and severe kyphoscoliosis due to which I'm marked as 75% permanently disabled with Locomotor Disability, my school life never had been a bed of roses where I had to endure both psychological and physical issues leading to traumatic experiences and I was often cornered due to my fear and also because of isolation as I was never considered a match for many in terms of building friendships except I could manage to gain their attention and curiosity only because of my talent in painting and drawing. Very few friends I had who were kind and free with me without maintaining any barriers or distance with me for the way I am.

In childhood I had multiple health issues especially on gastrointestinal front and till date my parents' mindset is not that bold and progressive to embrace me for the way I am and I grew up constantly cursing the superpower for making me like this. At that time, I followed their footsteps and made a blunder of distancing myself from socialising with many of my classmates especially boys for which today I regret. Time has taught me various lessons that led me to vow that I'm no more open to listen whatever they speak on my face and that obviously made me tag as a rebel but to be honest I enjoy my this new identity.

On the art front, then my love for painting is what makes my breath intact as I feel that I'm not worthless. Art may not be giving me any monetary benefits as of now because of which again I'm forced to look for some commercial designations that halts my liberty and aspirations to gain popularity, but will try my best to not let the artist in me die. I had tried to knock the doors of many institutions and people claiming to support the emerging artists but I vain at the end of the day who bluntly slapped me with questions on my face that am I a professional degree holder in Arts and Literature. Some maintained silence because I'm still an ordinary citizen without any recognition. There onwards I stopped running behind people and institutions. For more exposure I had joined a group for Brittle bones conditioned people with the help of my school teacher despite me not having that issue. But from there I got to know about the painful stories of many people with this condition and their stories of resilience, grit and determination where somewhere I too was battling for. Through one of them I got to be a part in a charitable art group, Swapnachitra in Kerala who shared about Art for Inclusion group in Bangalore.

If someone asks me whether am I a performing artist, then I don't know what to say as I haven't performed it on stage yet and not very much comfortable for my physical limitations. I prefer my full concentration & dedication while I'm making a picture on canvas. I prefer no superficial appearance as I refused to commit to a photoshoot segment who asked me to complete a picture within 2 days maximum and that too in outdoor location for a scenic view. It seemed to childish proposal to a person like me who was not ready to see the depth of my constraints, where motivation is good but not by running away from reality. In school days I got many awards and accolades for participating in both academic and external painting competitions and one newspaper used to publish my artwork every week which I had to discontinue upon my parent's insistence considering the seriousness of juggling with my academic works and external commitments. I could only attend 1 month home tuition for learning oil painting which also got disrupted due to my studies. When I was doing my BCom, I started commercialising my artworks where my teachers supported and some of them got sold with the help of their acquaintances.

In 2016, when my dad retired, we settled in Pune and I pursued Diploma in 3D modeling and editing after which for 6 months I worked as freelance 3D artist and due to underpayment and exploitation, I went ahead doing my Masters degree in Commerce from Manipal University Jaipur.

In 2024, December I attended their convocation ceremony sidelining my fear and insecurities that had once made me make several compromises during my school days for not having the courage to face the sarcastic giggles on the faces of the other children towards my imperfect appearance.

In schools, teachers and some kind hearted classmates used to protect me from being hit or falling as going to washrooms during breaks used to be a scary challenge for having huge possibility of getting hit and stampeded on the corridors. I used to get out of the class 15 mins before the final bell rang for the same reason to safely reach my bus parked at the ground during when my father used to come to lift my bag and drop me till the bus and return to office. Initially fearing the scorching heat inside the non-ac buses, we had hired a private transport only to find out that the driver is greedy, shrewd and irresponsible to keep us all waiting for almost 1 hour under the scorching sun. There also he began to feel insecured to being caught by my father when he used to come to aid me by carrying my bag and wait until that van arrived.

Besides gastrointestinal, I also started observing the traces of learning disability in me which is probably connected with my genetic disorder as per the recent findings at the time when I was doing my MCom project in final semester. I found the reasons that why I often face difficulties in remembering the points by just reading the textbooks thus forcing me to continue writing impositions at the time of preparing for the exams. The entire textbooks I had to write and study for this issue where I had concentration issues by having the tendency to get distracted by small noises. All these definitely caught my attention making me inquisitive with conclusion that I need to self explore about my medical condition but the same time I feel that I'm not prepared to face the bitter truths which still remain in the dark because we never stepped in to explore further.

Today with the help of the knowledge I gained from Diploma in photo and video editing, I create vlogs and reels on my social media handles, as well as I do content writing by reviewing books and movies which I truly enjoy by getting deeper into the various layers of the characters resonating with real life people.

For the very first time I was invited as one of the motivational speakers by Mrs. Archana Ravindran for an online conference meeting for IOIF.

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