DHANUSHKODI, Tamil Nadu (CU)_At 4.15.am. on Sunday (20 March), a 13-year-old autistic girl set out to swim across the Palk Strait. On any given day, swimming across this sea channel connecting India and Sri Lanka is almost unimaginable. This young Indian girl chose to do so on a day when there was a cyclone brewing off India’s East Coast.
Jiya Rai, swam between Talaimannar, in Sri Lanka’s north-western coast and Dhanushkodi, on India’s Southern Coast, covering a distance of 29km in a record time of 13 hours and 10 minutes. She did so when cyclone Asani was inching closer to the Andaman Islands, an Indian archipelago not too far away. Speaking to World is One News (WION) agency, Jiya’s father discussed how she and her wife brought up their special child to become a leading Para swimmer. He revealed that since the age of two, she had a fondness for water, be at home or playschool. Around the same time they also noticed her to be different from children of her age, always a loner and rather silent, barely uttered anything.
She was later diagnosed with…