Excelsior correspondent
Dreams have wings, they only know how to fly and don’t care much about the obstacles but when we dream of big goals in our life then there come a lot of impediments that cross our path.
Masrat Farooq, a girl with the charm of her dreams in her eyes, used to be dull faced wondering how this world goes where the one who wants to study and achieve big lacks money and those who have money are lacking determination to study. The little girl who learnt the true meaning of life at a very young age, the situation continued till she completed her matriculation.
Meanwhile, she used to take tuition classes when she was in 9th or 10th grade in order to manage the financial burden and balance the daily expenditures of her house. At this age when most teens are busy in the overwhelming whirlpool of college life, Masrat became matured beyond her age. After returning from college, she used to visit Madrasa for Islamic studies and thereafter used to conduct tuition classes from 5pm onwards.
Nothing hindered the proximity between Masrat and her studies. Though she scored good in her 10th class which made her very happy, it was the time to decide which stream to choose though her dream was to become a lawyer. Since childhood, she had a great attraction towards the black coat of lawyers. She decided to accomplish her dream but she was unaware of the fact that she can pursue her dream of law via humanities and was tangling her thoughts in whether to take science or commerce. Slowly things took an ugly turn due to low income and increasing expenditures. Though Masrat somehow managed to complete her 11th and 12th and thereafter without any second thought she applied for a teaching job after glancing over an advertisement and got selected for three months of winter coaching after which the school faculty provided her cheque of Rs 8000 but she requested them to provide her the payment in cash and then the school faculty gave her only Rs 6000 playing fraud with her. After this incident Masrat got so disappointed and was trying to find answers for her unresolved queries.
Time heals every wound but still the phases of those bad times get barely diminished. When Masrat Farooq was in her first year of graduation, she faced the most dreadful days of her life when her father met with a serious road accident. When her father was admitted to the hospital, Masrat Farooq’s exam was going on but this strong girl was so broken up that no one knew whether she would be able to attempt her exam or not. When she visited the hospital to meet her father, Masrat Farooq’s father’s first question to her was ” Go home girl and prepare; you have your exam”. “Go girl do rock in your exam, I am here with your father, replied Ali Mohammad, Masrat Farooq’s maternal uncle who had been helping and supporting them since long in financial and other matters as well. Masrat Farooq got a hand of relief and she decided to go for the exam.
When Masrat reached the exam hall she realized that she was already very late and authorities informed her that she would not be allowed to sit for the exam, Broken, Masrat failed to stop her tears and requested the authorities to let her enter the hall, after lot of chaos one teacher who knew Masrat and believed her to be a brilliant student told authorities to let her enter the hall and they finally allowed. When the result was out this talented girl scored around 80 percent.
After that Masrat continued her classes, and slowly her teaching skill reached many students. Thereafter the number of students increased in her class for which she hired many other teachers and now she is having two offices of her own and is gaining a lot of fame.
Amidst that Government of India announced lockdown in her place that is in Srinagar, due to the scrapping of Article 370 and there again she felt downgrading status of her tuition classes as due to lockdown students were not able to attend tuitions. This situation continued for many months and as soon as things were slowly getting back to normal, COVID happened. Initially due to strict lockdown and fear, no one could venture out and even in this time the most unbearable loss was the loss of studies which could not be compensated.
Masrat realised that students are facing problems regarding their disturbed studies so she decided to step out and give tuitions. So, she started giving tuitions in public places like community halls. Her this idea seemed to be successful and was meeting up to the parent’s expectations.
Although most of the schools shifted their classes to online mode, it had its own drawback. The young students were not able to comprehend the contents. The technology was new and the teachers were also not familiar and of course everyone knew the state of internet in Kashmir. Therefore, parents were also complaining of the negative effects of continued use of mobile phones. Many students used to play games while their parents thought they were taking online classes. During all this, she had an idea. Instead of bringing students to us, why not go to the students. This idea clicked, she appointed a few highly educated, unemployed youth and assigned them different locations for private tuitions. Within no time, there was a marked change in the performance of the children. The parents were ecstatic as their greatest worry was been taken care of. Day by day, by the word of mouth, more and more people knew about this initiative and she kept appointing more and more teachers.
Masrat was awarded with the title “First FEMALE YOUNGEST EDUCATION Entrepreneur J&K” at “SKICC” by the Lt Governor Manoj Sinha. Masrat never gave up, these impediments always failed to beat her strong and firm determination and finally at the end she overcame all these and reached towards the light of happiness.
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