Tranum Khanday
BUDGAM, June 14: Hailing from a small town in Budgam district, Ishrat Shafi Khan’s journey to Bristol-London has been both arduous and passionate. For a girl who comes from a low-income family; and for someone whose father works as a labourer, to end-up working at the University of Bristol United Kingdom is a great feat on its own.
Ishrat is a young and passionate woman, and for her, to be working in the U.K. is a dream come true. But as expected, this fulfilled dream has an inspiring story behind it.
“I got my first personal phone in the year 2015. It was a gift from my father when I moved to the hostel of Kashmir University. Until then, I had neither used a mobile phone, nor internet,” Ishrat added while talking to Kashmir Despatch about her bygone hardships.
“I also happen to use the internet in Library of Kashmir University for the first time in my life.”
Growing up, her father struggled to make the two ends meet. The returns from farming were not enough to feed his family. Therefore, he worked as a laborer to supplement the household income. He had the mandate of raising three girls and one little boy.
Being the second child, Ishrat remembers how her older sister, Nasreen had to discontinue her studies and start working as a tailor to help her family. Ishrat is grateful that had it not been for her father and her older sister Nasreen, she may have never achieved her destiny.
“After matriculating in 2009 and passing class 12th with flying colors, my sister and father chipped in money to send me for CET coaching to Srinagar’s Parrraypora,” she recalls.
Ishrat said: “Unfortunately, I failed to make it to the list for two consecutive years, and subsequently lost interest in studies altogether. However, my father and sister did not let me disdained. They encouraged me to pursue education and had me enrolled in Government Degree College Budgam. Eventually, with honest efforts and all the prayers, I graduated with a first rank in Science stream from Budgam College. The whole town turned up to congratulate me on topping the college,” Ishrat recounted while sharing her journey with Kashmir Despatch.
In the meantime, while Ishrat was in college, she would help her sister with tailor work, but after she moved to Kashmir University to pursue a post-graduation diploma in Biological sciences, she began to focus entirely on her studies. On witnessing her brilliance, her university professors motivated and guided her to go for research.
In 2017, Ishrat qualified NET/JRF in biological sciences. The very same year, she was offered the post of junior research fellow from a top research institution in India, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) Mumbai.
“In Mumbai, I was heading the Lab of twenty junior scientists under the guidance of Prof. Ashutosh Kumar. I worked there for 2 years with an annual package of 10 lakh INR.”
But Ishrat was not content with the post of Junior Research Fellow, and a mundane package of one million Indian rupees. She knew that she had the potential for more. In March 2021 she appeared in the IELTS test, and on June 5, she got an offer to work on a project in Bristol university U.K. with a package of one lakh dollars.
Ishrat is thankful to her family, friends, and various NGOs of the valley that supported her during her tough times. Ishrat does not indulge in fruitless wasting of time on social media. She uses the internet for study purposes and advises the youngsters to do the same if they wish to succeed in life.
