Ahsana- A Light in the Darkness
- Nongjaimayum Ahsana Shah -
- First Manipuri Muslim to recieve an MU Gold Medal

By Arshad Shah *

As always, a few bright sparks flicker amidst the darkness. Especially amongst people shrouded in medieval darkness. In a group of people that has by now come to be associated with backwardness, terror and at best false valor, it so happens that a few rays of hope shine occasionally – unfelt though.

These bright flicks eventually pass out if left untended. Either by itself or by the surrounding's apathy. Or by a collective consciousness that a bright spark stands no hope in a dark melee, or more cynically, by a sub-conscious fear that it could only come about to be associated with the darkness itself. The Manipuri Muslim community is one such example.

Lo! Here is a Meitei-Pangal girl of supreme qualifications whose academic records are enough to knock the pretences off the community's academia. Yet, none from her own people has ever bothered to take notice. Not that everybody must take note - after all anybody's business is nobody's.

But one certainly has this feeling that had our Muslim brothers spent as much time and energy on real-time focus into their immediate backyards as they do news-mongering, speculating and nonsense-sing on what is happening in Pakistan and Taliban, the community could at least be exhibiting some genuine solicitous concern and initiative.

How the identity of Nongjaimayum Ahsana Shah aka Gudiya has managed to escape the welfare radars of the many so called Muslim or minority organizations who claim to promote the interest of the community, is a mystery. What on earth then are these minority organizations doing among the minorities? Where is the palpable solicitation?

At the risk of sounding like a cheesy ad, Ahsana Shah was born on 22nd of March, 1986, to M.A Rahman Shah and Ms. Iqbal Chishti of Khergao. She did her schooling from Nirmalabas High School under the personal care and guidance of her doting father, a simple retired government employee whose only purpose in life, evidently, was to shower on his daughter all the attention and care she needed till she achieved glory.

Many people in the locality still re-collect vividly the visual of a certain dad-daughter duo on a biped, making a celestial appearance on the road twice a day. It was no joy-ride, but it made an ordinary spectacle. Dad was taking daughter to school in the morning and fetching her back in the evening.

Punctuality and frequency must have etched into the public's sub-conscious mind the imagery—of a calm, quite and imperturbable dad-daughter pair embarking perpetually on their single-minded mission of enlightenment twice a day, seven times a week (no exaggeration), more than fifty weeks a year and many years at that.

Nobody bothered then, least of all the dad-daughter pair who seemed contentedly oblivious to the world, talking to none and talked to by nobody. Yet everybody seems to recollect the picture.

It has been a few years since Dad-Daughter was last seen. As by some sheer providential coincidence, this writer ran into Dad the other day. Naturally I dug in after the initial pleasantries. What I discovered was simply amazing to say the least. I gawped like Bill Gates gone bankrupt.

Ahsana had passed her matriculation with a high first class from Nirmalabas in 2001. She then added the same cap with her 12th standard from T.G Hr. Sec. School. This was just the beginning. This brilliant girl then enrolled at G.P Women's College and rose on to take the 8th position in the B.Sc. (Hons) Zoology. Then came the climax.

The zenith where her full academic prowess was to shine brightly. 93 students appeared and vied for clearance in the 2008 M.U. M.Sc. Life Sciences examination. 85 passed. Ahsana notched the top spot and emerged as the only student to make the cut with distinction, outscoring her nearest mate by more than 80 marks.

She was awarded 2 (two) gold medals—the first Manipuri Muslim student of the M.U. to receive a gold medal in the science stream—one for her 1st Class First in M.Sc. Life Sciences and the other for highest marks in Zoology.

Prior to this, she had received cash prize from her alma-mater for her score in Addl. English in the HSLS exam, the highest in the subject for the year. And another Educational Merit Award conferred by the DESAM for her performance in the HSSLC.

These said, Gudiya is no ideal academic ivory tower-ian at all. She has played Netball at the National Junior Level and is a 3rd Prize Winner of a march-pass competition in her college. On top of it all, she was a "Miss Fresher" holder for the Life Science Department of the Manipur University.

The reason why this writer has chosen to write on his girl is to broach her identity among our Muslim brethren. Let there be discussions and even debates.

And pray, how much pretention have we all been indulging in, lip-servicing and haranguing on the interest and welfare of the community while all along the brightest and youngest of its females lay accorded an attention commensurate with a desiccated old vegetable?

"We are all praying for her", our Muslim brothers would certainly say if told about, as if God alone belonged to them such that the collective weight of their prayers would make Him change their plight overnight – something the Palestinians, the Iraqis, the Afghans and the rest of the wretched community have not achieved in decades! Bullshit! Excuse my French, please.

MP Dr. Th. Meinya personally rewarded a gold medalist from another department of the University. Not that the MP was partial, for had he known of the girl, he certainly would have done the same for her. Besides, virtually guaranteed the other communities, led by the learned MP himself, are far ahead in their vision and practicality. They never let an opportunity go by where old heads and hands are expected on young shoulders.

The problem with the case of Ahsana was indifference on the part of the environment around the talent. Nobody cares to give a damn. She remains hitched to the lack of initiative on encouragement from her own surroundings.

If the local people knew about the girl, they have been remaining silent. If they didn't, then logically and naturally the girl and her family's humility and modesty prevented themselves from being made known to the public. Either way, somebody has to do something sometime.

As for the bright, ever non-gratified spark that is Ahsana, the latest news heard was that she had just cleared the SET examination conducted by SLET Commission, Assam (NE-Region) in her first attempt.