Kozhikode: Soorya Devarchana alias Archana K. Rajan, 28, is facing threats from Hindutva elements as she has decided to go to Sabarimala to worship Lord Ayyappa.
Archana, who works in a home appliances company here, was targeted online after she took a vow to go to Sabarimala following the Supreme Court verdict allowing young women to worship there.
“Morphed images were widely used to defame me,” she said and added that cases were registered in this regard. Archana, who is unmarried, had to take a sabbatical from work. “I am not using phone now and I have to change my places of residence constantly. There is curb on my freedom,” she lamented.
But she is determined to have a peaceful darshan, said Archana whose devotion to Ayyappan arose after she learnt the legend of the orphan boy who was adopted by the erstwhile Pandalam king and underwent various ordeals.
Archana, who belongs to Karunagapally, Kollam, found in the legend similarities between Ayyappa’s life and that of her own.
“My parents got estranged when I was three. When I was in the second standard, my father married again saying that the stepmother would take care of me and my brother. But things changed when they had their own children. I was neglected and eventually reduced to the status of a house maid. Being an orphan is the connecting bond between me and Ayyappa,” Archana said.
She had visited Sabarimala as a child which added to her faith. She lived at her relatives’ houses and after graduation joined the sales field. “In the beginning, I did not know anything about the technical details of home appliances, the section where I was employed. Men explained the watt, voltage, cooling features etc to the customers. But I was determined and studied the technical aspects. I have always been a fighter,” she said.
She occasionally does event management jobs also. “Poetry and travelling are my passion,” she said.
