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 comes a lot of impediments that crosses
our path.
Here is a story of Masrat Farooq, unfortunately due to lack of
money and poor family condition many children’s childhood
is lost and goes as similar as of an aged person carrying lots
of concern regarding life, Masrat’s father had a business of
carpets which was already diminished. It became difficult for
them to even manage basic amenities.
Masrat, 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 are lacking money and those who have money are lacking determination to study. The
little girl learnt the true meaning of life at a very early 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 mostly teens are busy in the overwhelming whirlpool of college life, Masrat became
mature 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. When we have fire
of determination in heart then nothing seems impossible or barrier and this is proved by
Masrat, the girl never gave up due to her family conditions rather she worked harder so that
one day she could raise her family out of impoverished circumstances. Masrat had a one floor
house which was of nominal nature.
Nothing hindered the proximity between Masrat and her studies though the result she scored
a good score in her 10th class which made her very happy and now it was the time to decide
which stream to choose though her dream was to become a lawyer ,since childhood she had
a great affection towards the black coat of lawyers and there 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 and their days were more and more deteriorating due to no income and increasing
expenditures, further Masrat somehow managed to completed her 11th and 12th and
thereafter without any second thought she applied for a teaching job after glancing over an
advertisement and she got selected for 3 months of winter coaching after which the school
faculty provided her cheque of 8000 but she requested them to provide her the payment in
cash and then the school faculty gave her 6000 playing fraud with her. After this incident
Masrat got so disappointed and was trying to find answers for her unresolved queries, she
was so mesmerised about her destiny which seemed to her as so unfavourable since her
childhood. Meanwhile her father started a small business and after some days they were able
to generate a little revenue out of it.
Time heals every wound but still the phases of those bad times are 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, that day still make her cry wondering the
blood and 21 stitches which his father got due to the accident and the fear of approaching the
poorer condition of her family.
When her father was admitted to the hospital, Masrat Farooq’s exam were 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 has
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. She has been tested by God
since her childhood so her testing period haven’t ended yet.
When Masrat reached the exam hall she realized that she is already very late and authorities
informed her that she is not 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 knows
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%.
Time once again took an ugly turn in her life it had become so common for her that whenever
anything fruitful happened was always followed by some tragic bad incident in her life.
Everything was on track when her father resumed working and earning but in midst of that
when masrat just completed her graduation, the family had to face with grave incident that
was: Masrat’s father had a minor heart attack there masrat again was totally shaken. After
completing her graduation, she joined a company which offered her 6000 rupees per month.
Things were in a balanced stage for one year and after that she had to leave the job due to
health issues.
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, Jammu
and Kashmir 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 and the worst lockdown in the history of the world took place throughout the
world and Kashmir was no exception. 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 encountered that students are facing problems regarding their disturbed studies so
she decided to herself 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 back draws.
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 knows 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 are 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 to 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.
She became an idol for the whole of Kashmir the moment her two students “Danish Manzoor”
from Bemina and “Hafid” from Karan Nagar topped the 10th board examination with around
99%. Where at this grave situation of lockdown, studies were so imbalanced and parents were
worried, the news of Masrat’s Smart Classes Home Tuition flourished so fast that a huge
number of parents in Kashmir wanted their children to take admission in Masrat’s Smart
Classes Home Tuition. Moreover, many teachers also knocked the door of Masrat thereafter
Masrat allotted her teachers’ different areas for home tutoring. She also realized that home
tutoring is not affordable for all the parents and she herself didn’t ever want that any child
should be barred from education because of financial crises and she didn’t want anyone to
face what she had to face and how much struggle she had to do for acquiring education so
she tutored many students herself without charging any fee from them and is still doing the
same.
Masrat was awarded with the title “First FEMALE YOUNGEST EDUCATION
ENTERPRUENER J&K” at “SKICC” by the Honourable Governor.
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
