Right from her Class I days, when anyone asked Anie what she wanted to be, she jumped up and said “police.” She adored Kiran Bedi, the first woman IPS officer in the country. Her father wanted her to become an IPS officer. The dream stuck in her young mind. Anie was encouraged to study hard, she was never held back from anything because she was a girl. Trouble struck at 18 when a life decision brought many dreams down. She was suddenly a college dropout, separated after an early marriage and with a child. There were years of struggle after that, but three days ago, the first of her dreams came true. Anie Siva took charge as the Sub Inspector of Police in the Varkala Station of Thiruvananthapuram.
Anie’s story is everywhere now. She had written a short note on Facebook on her difficult life. “But my childhood was lovely, growing up in the town of Neyyatinkara (in Thiruvananthapuram). There was no mango tree I had not climbed in our neighborhood, no fence I hadn’t jumped, no bicycle I had not tried riding. I was never stopped from doing things because I was a girl. My parents let me have my way. And I used to do really well at school,” Anie says.
In her first year at college – doing her Bachelors in Sociology -- she fell in love, got married, and became a mother all too soon. She dropped out of college. Her family had not liked any of this and threw her out. Two years later, she separated from the husband and walked away with her little son. She was not welcome back in her home. “My father, then in the Gulf, called the police to complain that I had entered the house by force,” Anie says.
She went to stay at a grandmother’s place for a couple of months and afterward moved into another house with her son. Slowly, she began to pick up the pieces of her life that had suddenly fallen apart. Anie continued her studies from where she had left off, began doing odd jobs to make ends meet.
Anie with her son Siva Surya
“I did door to door delivery of products for some time. When that didn’t work, I tried working as an insurance agent. That too flopped. I am not very good at talking and convincing people,” Anie says. She drew really well and on the side, sketched for projects of college students. In her Facebook post, Anie wrote that she had once sold ice cream and lemon juice at Varkala.
On the advice of a friend she also tried doing small businesses. But that failed too. “Then a relative suggested that I try entering police service. It was also my father's dream that I become a police officer. So in 2014 I wrote the Kerala police recruitment exams. I cleared them. The first call came for the constable post. In 2019, I got the call for SI training. In July 2020 I finished the training and was on probation these past months in Kochi city.”
Two years ago, her mother moved in with her to help look after her son Siva Surya. They now live in the police quarters. “I asked for a transfer to Kochi city since that’s where we have been living and I don’t want to change my son's school again. He has always been moving places because of me.”
She got the transfer. Everything looks good for her now – her son is doing fine in Class 7, her job is good, her dreams are slowly coming true and she’s still only 31. The only wish that remains is to hear from her dad who has not broken his silence yet. And to once again live together with her parents like in the old days.