Kottayam: For Archana Kunjumon, life has never been an easy journey, marked by childhood misunderstandings, hearing challenges, and long nights of self-study. The long road, however, has now culminated in a proud achievement: she secured the first rank in BA Malayalam at Mahatma Gandhi University.

“I was often beaten and scolded as a child for being called stubborn and someone who wouldn’t listen. I used to tell them many times that I could not hear what they were saying from a distance, but it made no difference. Today, I have people who speak for me,” she said, her eyes gleaming with happiness.

Archana, who has a 56 per cent hearing impairment, communicates with the help of a hearing aid. When she was unable to attend college for the last three months due to surgery and recovery, her friend Sandra Suresh stepped in, sharing class lessons and supporting her studies. When the results were announced, Sandra secured the second rank. Both are students of Baselios College, Kottayam.

A teacher first identified her hearing impairment in Class 2. “When I remained in the playground while the rest of the children were called back to class, they realized something was wrong,” she recalled. Though she initially feared that wearing a hearing aid would make her an outcast, her classmates and teachers stood firmly by her. “Some people in the locality used to look at me with pity whenever they saw me. Nothing is more irritating than that,” she said.

Archana now uses a hearing aid that is vulnerable to rain damage and often has to remove it when stepping outside. She returned to campus only in the final week of the last semester.

She says much of her learning came not just from classrooms but from her own determination. “We used to sit together and study after discussing everything," she said.