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inshah

inshah
bashir , jammu
&
kashmir

Inshah Bashir (30) sits in her wheelchair on a basketball court. Wearing a copper-sulphate-blue T-shirt, navy blue track pants, and a pale pink dupatta wrapped around her head and neck, she is looking up at the sky. Her right arm, which has just tossed up a pinkish-red basketball, is raised. The ball is suspended in the air against a whitish sky. The court is paved overall with blue flooring and only the three-point arcs below the baskets have red flooring.
Inshah is in her wheelchair in a room with cream walls. She wears white pants, white T-shirt with INDIA in orange block letters on the front, and white dupatta around her head and neck. She is smiling as she holds up a basketball in each hand. To the right there is a brown sofa piled high with washed dried clothes in colours of red, pink and many shades of blue. The wall behind the sofa has a shelf crammed with trophies of gleaming brass and wood.
Inshah is inside a gym, holding a pair of silver-coloured iron dumbbells. Her left hand is lowered and right hand is raised. She wears navy blue track pants, a pale blue T-shirt with Magyar sleeves and a sky blue dupatta around her head and neck. The T-shirt is printed with large black capitals that say FREE ENERGY. It is worn over a black, full-sleeved shirt. There is a wheelchair to the left, with a cushion on the seat and padding on the back in chocolate brown. The arm rest and frame are painted neon orange. Behind her there is a row of grey treadmills. The gym walls have chocolate brown and grey panels.
Side shot of Inshah in her wheelchair against a pale grey wall. She is looking down at a rectangular cloth bag slung over her left shoulder which faces the camera. She is clutching the shoulder straps with her right hand and holding it close to her chest. Her left hand rests on a cushion cover placed on her lap. She wears a full-sleeved kameez printed in a leafy design of grey and white on a pale peachy-orange background. The cushion cover is sea-green with small, pinkish-red floral motifs. The bag is orangey-yellow and has black outlines of large flowers that are bright orange with a yellow centre and creamy yellow with a bright orange centre. To the right there is a white heavy-duty sewing machine fixed to a turquoise blue table with grey legs. High up behind her there is a horizontal wooden rod resting on metal brackets fixed to the wall. Hanging from the rod by their straps is a row of rectangular cloth handbags. They are in different sizes and printed with designs in green, blue, black and chocolate brown. Some of the bags are plain off-white.
Inshah sits in her wheelchair in a corner of a room with peach walls and mocha coloured floor tiles. The night sky and the lights of a tall building appear through a large glass-paned window behind her. She wears her Magyar-sleeved T-shirt over a black full-sleeved shirt, chocolate brown track pants and mocha coloured scarf around her head and neck. The right wall is painted with large black capitals that read MY DISABILITY HAS OPENED MY EYES TO SEE MY ABILITIES. Just below the slogan is a mural of a large orange sun and a boy in a sapphire blue T-shirt resting on his chest on dark green grass. A grey crutch with a black axillary support is placed on the grass to the left of the boy. He is smiling and writing with a red pencil in an open notebook placed on the grass in front of him. He has finished writing the letters A B C D in black. To the right of the boy there is a giant butterfly with light brown wings and thorax, dark brown head, a smiling mouth and large round white eyes with black pupils.
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“I feel proud to be a role model today, given that I never had one while growing up”

When Inshah Bashir (30), a month short of her fifteenth birthday, fell from a height and severely injured her spine, she was shattered when she realised she couldn’t walk. The teenager from Beerwah in Budgam, Kashmir, sank into depression, made worse by people’s pessimistic remarks and their murmurs of “who will marry her now?”
 
After her father Bashir Ahmad patiently, insistently questioned her she revealed what was troubling her. She asked, “Am I a burden to you? Will I ever be able to walk?” Bashir calmly replied, “Whether you walk or not is Allah’s will, but what you make of life is entirely up to you. If you are upset about what others are saying, then, my child, you should live in such a way that it shuts up all their mouths.” And the way Dr Inshah has lived her life makes people open their mouths only to sing her praises.
 
“Inshah Allah means god willing,” Inshah explains. “My father says I am his blessing. He is my strength.” When he developed Parkinson’s and other health issues, she felt guilty that her family was spending more time attending to her needs than her father’s. Bashir sensed her anxiety and mentioned it to a doctor they had in common, the well-known urologist Dr Saleem Wani. He tried to get her to meet him but she refused. Dr Wani sent her a note through her father: “I have something important to discuss with you about your father.” This trick worked. When he started inquiring about her well-being she angrily retorted, “Let’s talk about my father and not me.” Dr Wani pointed out that her father was deeply distressed by her depression. “If you really care about him you must do something to make him proud,” he said. “The Koran says you must never give up hope. Focus on doing things independently.” He advised her to go to Shafaqat Rehabilitation Centre in Srinagar.
 
Initially her family hesitated to send her on her own but she was determined. At the Centre, it took time for her to mingle with others. One day the director of the Centre asked her what she wanted to do. “I have always wanted to be either a doctor or a sportswoman,” she replied. He smilingly told her, “You can always do a PhD and get a doctorate.” Well, years later, after securing a B.Ed degree, she didn’t do a PhD but received an honorary doctorate from (the government-approved) World Peace of United Nations University! Her other option, sports, proved more fruitful. The director introduced her to the gym and then to the basketball court.
 
Inshah was amazed and inspired by the sight of wheelchair users chatting, playing and being joyful. “I learnt the game by observing them. I would practise for hours on my own. There was no toilet where the indoor basketball court was, so I used to wear a diaper while practising.” Her persistence led to her qualifying for the district level team. The Centre was informed about an all-state team being put together. Since Inshah’s family was not well-off, the Centre offered to sponsor her travel to Hyderabad for the selections, taking care of all requirements including medicines and basketball kit. There she saw other girls arriving with their entourage of dietician, doctor, coach and trainers, while she had none but herself. She was selected and played her first nationals in Tamil Nadu as the first female wheelchair basketball player from Jammu and Kashmir.
 
To advance her sporting career she knew she had to move out of Kashmir. She started teaching in the pioneering Amar Jyoti School in Delhi and captained the Delhi team. She played an international match in the US and proudly recalls how, on her return, the airline crew at Srinagar airport had a huge cake ready saying ‘Welcome, National Hero’.
 
Later Inshah moved to Mumbai to work at a rehabilitation centre. But Bashir had a better suggestion: she should return home to become a role model for other girls. Thus her journey came full circle to the Shafaqat Rehabilitation Centre where she encouraged women to play basketball. She captained J&K’s first wheelchair basketball team for women and garnered gold medals in 2022 and 2023. In 2022 on 3 December, the International Day of Persons with Disabilities (PwD), she received the National Award for the Empowerment of PwD from President Draupadi Murmu.
 
Inshah lives in an apartment provided by the Centre where she works. Besides training girls she also offers counselling and skill development. “Before my very eyes I have seen people’s attitude towards me change,” she says. “Relatives and neighbours now tell their kids to become like me.” She financially supports her parents who live with her elder brother and family. Her younger brother studies in Aligarh Muslim University. She is very close to her younger sister who has done M.Tech in Engineering and has been her staunchest supporter. “She tells her daughter, you should become like your maasi (aunt)!” says Inshah. She says although she has received “many wonderful proposals” she wants to wait another two years to mentally prepare herself for marriage. Right now she is training for the Paralympics.


Photos:

Vicky Roy

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