Thiruvananthapuram: From her cocoon of anonymity, when life forced Anie Siva, then an 18-year-old woman to sell lemonade and ice cream to tourists in Kerala’s Varkala, she never thought she would one day be a police inspector of the same town.

Congratulating her for her success, the Kerala Police tweeted, “A true model of willpower and confidence. An 18-year-old girl who was left on the streets with her 6-month-old baby after being abandoned by her husband and family has become Sub Inspector at Varkala police station.”

Anie Siva, now a 31-year-old, joined as a probationary sub-inspector at Varkala police station.

“I got to know that my posting is at Varkala police station only a few days back. This is a place where I have shed many tears with my small child, with no one to support me,” Ms Siva told news agency ANI.

“At the stalls in Varkala Sivagiri ashram, I tried many small businesses like selling lemonade, ice-cream to handmade crafts. Everything flopped. It was then a man who suggested and helped me with money to study and write the exam for the sub-inspector post.”

When Anie Siva was a first-year degree student at KNM Government College in Kanjiramkulam, she married against the will of her family. However, after she delivered a baby, her husband left her.

Though she tried to return home, the family did not accept her. She started to live in a shed at her grandmother’s house with her son Shivasurya and later changed places to find better jobs.

“I always wanted to be an Indian Police Service officer. But fate had other things in store. Now, I feel proud and also emotional with the kind of support I am getting after many shared my Facebook post in which I shared my joy in a brief note,” she said.

Anie Siva said that people should help each other and she will be happy if any woman, who is trying to stand on their own feet, is inspired by her life story.

“Fighting all odds, I was able to reach here. If other women get motivation from me to move forward in their life, I am happy,” she said.