RAMANATTUKARA: Anamika is literally flooded with awards for her poems and stories. This 17-year-old girl has already garnered more than 200 awards but the irony is she doesn’t have a room to showcase them.

Her father Sajith is a painting worker and mother, a house wife; she also has a brother. To extend a study room, she gave application to Ramanattukara Municipality two times but her application was rejected, with the explanation that she didn’t fall under eligible criteria.

She has won awards in the name of ONV, Kakkad, Kadathanad Madhavi and more, all scattered in different parts of her very small congested house. Her plight came to the notice of a few Muslim League workers, who visited her to invite her for a reception. Their kind-heartedness gifted her a cupboard.

If she has to get the permission from municipality, she should be a girl whose father has expired, she should be a diseased person or she should be a single child…thus goes the criteria.

Notably, she is the author of the book Oonjal veedu, the second edition of which has already been released. Though she is profusely blessed with letters, she doesn’t have a room, where she could sit peacefully, reading or writing.

When she was studying in the second standard of Karinkallayi VPA LP school, she was inspired to write for the first time by one Sharda teacher. The teacher was also the first person to spot her talent. When she was in the third standard, her first poem came published in the children’s column of a prominent weekly.

Her collection of stories titled Pedi Mittayi will be brought out soon by Chintha Publishers. Anamika’s house is near Farooq College at Chulliparambu Kodakkadu. She has just completed her Plus two and aspires to qualify in Entrance examinations.