On the International Day of Yoga, Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut claimed the practice of breathing and stretching helped her sister and secretary Rangoli Chandel in regaining her dignity and confidence when acid was thrown on her face. It was a hate crime by a ‘roadside Romeo’ that resulted in Chandel’s face being partially eroded.
“Rangoli has the most inspiring Yoga story — a road side Romeo threw acid on Rangoli when she was hardly 21, with third degree burns, half of her face burnt, one eye lost its vision, one ear melted away and a breast severely damaged, she had to go through 53 surgeries in 2-3 years but that wasn’t all, my biggest concern was her mental health as she had stopped to speak, yes no matter what happened she would not say a word just stare blankly at every thing [sic],” said Ranaut in a post on Instagram.
Ranaut was 19 years old when her older sister had to battle this tough phase that saw her identity being questioned and her engagement breaking off. But yoga came to their collective rescue.
“She was engaged to an Air Force officer and when he saw her face after the acid attack he left and never returned, even then she did not shed a tear neither she uttered a word, doctors told me she is in a state of shock, they gave her therapies and put her on medication for psychiatric help but nothing helped. That time I was hardly 19 years old, I did yoga with my teacher Surya Narayan and had no idea that it could help patients with burns and psychological traumas also with retina transplant recovery and lost vision,” Ranaut continued.
Both of them practicing yoga everyday helped the troubled family tremendously.
“I desperately wanted her to talk to me, so I took her every where with me even to my Yoga classes. She started practising Yoga and I saw dramatic transformation in her. Not only she started to respond to her pain and my lame jokes but also regained her lost vision in one eye … Yoga is the answer to every question ( misery) you will ever have, did you give it a chance yet?,” wrote Ranaut.
