Diagnosed with JRA at 8, she now runs a career, funds family and buys her first car

Ambala: Himanshika was diagnosed with Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis at age 8. By 2014 she was using a wheelchair.

Years later, she’s built a career as a writer, funded her sister’s university education, helped her father open a restaurant, and bought her own SUV — becoming the first woman in her family to own a car.

The turning point came as a teen when her parents sold jewelry and borrowed money to publish her first book. It led her to freelance writing work she could do from home, where clients judged her by her work, not her mobility.“JRA took away my mobility and certainty. But it never took away my ability to think, to create, or to support my family,” she told The Better India.

She credits daily physiotherapy and her mother’s care for helping her manage, and says her biggest motivation was a childhood promise to ensure her sister never faced financial insecurity.

From being carried down a staircase in Class 10 to driving herself today, she calls it proof that “success isn’t about getting back what you’ve lost. It’s about building with what you still have.”