Society's acid tests

Ms Qureshi's Being Reshma sucks you into the trauma, the pain and the hopelessness an acid attack victim suffers day in and day out - and in the end, it makes you want to make a difference

Being Reshma 
 

The Extraordinary Story of an Acid Attack Survivor Who Took the World by Storm

Reshma Qureshi (with Tania Singh)

Macmillan, Pages 230; price Rs 599

What is it like when acid is poured on the human body? First, the clothes melt off. Then comes the smell of burning flesh. So hotly does the acid burn that the mind becomes delirious. For 17-year-old Reshma Qureshi the initial sensation was like drowning in ice, rapidly followed by a feeling of burning in hellfire, of being shredded alive as the acid ate through the layers of her skin and seeped towards her