When at her lowest, she often found solace in writing, particularly poetry, and even dreamt of publishing a book of poems someday.
That dream came true last Sunday when she launched “The Dancing Body: A Celebration of Movement and Joy” at Eslite Spectrum in Starhill.
Her success is particularly meaningful for the FMT team.
In July 2023, FMT published Nisshaa’s fundraising appeal for a surgical treatment known as Deep Brain Stimulation. As a result of the article, she was able to hit the targeted RM100,000 she needed to undergo surgery in November last year.
In her book, she thanked FMT for their role in making the surgery a reality. The excerpt below is published with Nisshaa’s permission:
“From the bottom of my heart, I want to express my deepest gratitude to Free Malaysia Today for featuring me on their platform! The entire crew and team were incredibly kind and accommodating during the interview, and I deeply appreciate their dedication to showcasing individuals like myself.
“Thanks to FMT’s platform, the interview garnered significant attention, leading to a surge in donations, and incredibly, even caught the eye of Kanyin Publications, who offered to publish my book! Words cannot describe how surreal this feels – it’s a dream come true for a girl who never dared to imagine seeing her writing published.”
Speaking with FMT Lifestyle, she also thanked the many Malaysians who donated towards her surgery.
“They say it takes a village to raise a child. And it did. I was the child, Malaysia was the village, and I was raised by that love. Strangers put in money for my surgery,” said Nisshaa, who works as a part-time secondary school teacher.
“That’s why I say, this book is not my accomplishment. This is Malaysia’s book,” she added.
“The Dancing Body” has over 80 poems that Nisshaa began writing in 2017. “I wrote about the way I felt, especially during the pain. The entire book is about my journey and how to overcome the pain of life, especially when you have a chronic illness.”
Honest and raw, her sense of positivity, despite her illness, shines in her poems. She said the title of her book, “The Dancing Body” is a literal representation of her physical condition at the time she was writing the poems.
“Before my surgery, I kept shaking and moving a lot. I couldn’t sit like this,” she explained. When she posted a video of herself on social media, among the comments she received was “she’s dancing well.”
Rather than feel shame or outrage, she chose to see her body in a positive light and added the subtitle, “A Celebration of Movement and Joy”. “That’s because I feel like nobody celebrates the disabled body.”
Although she is “doing much better now”, writing the poems before the surgery wasn’t easy.
Since it was painful to write sitting down, she would lie in bed and type her poems on her phone. But this too gave her back pains eventually.
But all that is now in the past. Instead, she prefers to remember the pure joy she felt holding the first copy of her book in her hands. “I was so excited. Actually, I was screaming. Finally, the book is here!”
Nisshaa plans to donate part of the proceeds from the sale of her book to individuals in need.
There are also over 200 unpublished poems that she’s written. “Let’s see how it goes!” she said with a smile.
She hopes to leave her readers with this profound message: “Love yourself, accept who you are.
“I think that it’s very rare for a person to hear the words, ‘you are enough’. That’s why I asked for the words ‘As I am, I am enough’ to be printed in large fonts in my book.”
‘The Dancing Body: A Celebration of Movement and Joy’ is available at:
- Eslite Spectrum, Starhill
- MPH
- Popular
- Kinokuniya
Or make an online purchase from Kanyin Publications.