At 15, she’s just 2 feet tall

‘I’m the happiest person in the world,’ says Nagpur girl

NAGPUR: At first glance, she appears to be a month-old baby, sitting in her mother’s lap. But make no mistake; Jyoti Amge is a 15-year-old schoolgirl.

Perhaps the world’s smallest girl at 23.5 inches, or just about two feet, in height, weighing barely 5.25 kg, Jyoti has Achondroplasia, a form of dwarfism.

“I am also the world’s happiest person,” she chuckles. “People, my friends and family – everybody showers love on me, and I am happy to be what I am.”

She makes no secret of the fact that she enjoys and loves the kind of attention she gets. “May be it will bring name and fame to me and my family,” she feels. The teenager, who studies at Bharatiya Vidya Niketan Higher Primary School in seventh standard, stopped growing a few months after her birth, her parents say.

Aware of the celebrity status that her height has brought her, Jyoti wants to give acting a shot. “I wish to become an actress,” she says, confident of making it to the dream world of Bollywood some day. She plans to take acting lessons soon.

Pop singer Mika Singh, who saw her on a news channel, has already given her a break in his yet-to-be-released music video.

“I loved working with Mika,” says Jyoti, who has a real sense of humour. “May be, he can hog a bit of the limelight with me,” she says with a twinkle in her eyes. Last month, she says, the BBC made a documentary on her at her home.

Last year Jyoti entered the Limca Book of Records as the smallest person in India. She may soon enter the Guinness Book as the world’s smallest person.

Jyoti is popular in her neighbourhood in Datta Nagar, an old locality in central Nagpur. Ask her address and people will guide you to her place happily.

“She has a big circle of friends and a fan following of sorts,” says her father Kishan, 49. He runs a modest transport business in the city along with his son Satish.  

Jyoti is the youngest of four children – three sisters and a brother. “But she is like the eldest in our house,” says her sister Archana, 21.

Her mother, Ranjana, 45, says they are proud of Jyoti. “Despite her dwarfism she is mentally as normal as anybody her age,” she says. “We have to take care and a lot of precautions, but we are used to it now,” she adds.

Like any other teenager, Jyoti loves fashion and has strong likes and dislikes. “I love ornaments,” she says bursting into a smile. “And I like partying with friends,” she adds and sings a line from the song she did with Mika Singh: “Hum hai jaha, party waha…” Aha!