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    "result": {"pageContext":{"language":"en","pathURL":"ifla-and-mehran-syed","isDefaultLanguage":true,"storyData":{"Name":"Ifla and Mehran Syed","Alt_Photos":null,"Alt_Text_Photo1":"Ifla Syed (21) and her brother Mehran Syed (20) sit on a red carpet in a room with a lilac wall behind them. Ifla wears a sandalwood coloured salwar-kameez with a floral bouquet printed on the front of the kameez in pale pastels of pink and green. Her head scarf wrapped around her shoulders is also sandal-coloured printed with broad, ornate borders of pale pastel pink and green. Mehran has thick straight hair with a centre parting, a moustache, and a narrow beard that lines his face. He wears a dark olive-green half-sleeved knitted shirt and dark grey pants. The siblings each hold a small white pot of artificial crimson roses with green leaves. On the carpet in front of them there is a similar pot with similar flowers, a tiny brown vase with two artificial green stems and leaves, and a white pot shaped like three rings one on top of the other, containing white artificial chrysanthemums and green leaves.","Alt_Text_Photo2":"Mehran and Ifla stand in the kitchen behind a black marble platform. Mehran is pouring water into three clear glasses from a stainless steel jug. Ifla is holding a spoon and mixing white cooked rice in a steel plate. Next to it there is a large orange rice cooker. There are steel utensils on shelves in the wall behind them which is lined with light green tiles.","Alt_Text_Photo3":"The siblings sit on a red carpet with a pista green wall behind them. Ifla wears a maroon salwar-kameez and head scarf. Mehran wears a light green half-sleeved shirt and chocolate brown pants. Each has a wooden X-shaped book-stand in front of them. A Koran rests on the V-shaped part of the stand. The siblings are bent over the Korans, reading it with the right forefinger tracing words on the page.","Alt_Text_Photo4":"The siblings are in the garden which has a green lawn edged with a row of cosmos plants with flowers in different shades of pink and orange. Ifla, wearing a dark and light orange printed salwar-kameez and head scarf, is squatting on the grass and plucking a flower. Mehran, wearing a chocolate-brown half-sleeved knitted shirt and light grey trousers, is standing with an orange plastic jug in his left hand, about to pour water onto a plant whose top he holds with his right hand.","Alt_Text_Photo5":"From left to right the father Mohammed Syed Bhat (54), mother Mehbooba (48), Mehran, Ifla, sister Saboora (15) and paternal aunt Shareefa (58). They are sitting cross-legged in a row. A large rust-red carpet with a design of black curlicues in spread out in front of them. Syed has a salt-and-pepper moustache and beard, and thinning hair. He wears an off-white pyjama and off-white full-sleeved shirt. Mehbooba wears a salwar-kameez printed in a design of pale pastel pink and blue. A yellow shawl is draped across her head, shoulders and chest. Mehran wears his olive-green shirt and grey pants. Ifla wears her sandal-coloured salwar-kameez set. Saboora wears specs with round frames and a maroon salwar-kameez set printed with a red and cream floral design. Shareefa wears a light grey salwar and a kameez printed with a pink and grey design. The tall French-window-curtains behind them are printed in an ornate leafy design of red, cream and dark chocolate.  ","Alt_Text_Video":null,"Photo1_URL":"https://egsweb.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/Mehran_ifla_syed/_O2A1894.jpg","Photo2_URL":"https://egsweb.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/Mehran_ifla_syed/_O2A1872.jpg","Photo3_URL":"https://egsweb.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/Mehran_ifla_syed/_O2A1858.jpg","Photo4_URL":"https://egsweb.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/Mehran_ifla_syed/_O2A1806.jpg","Photo5_URL":"https://egsweb.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/Mehran_ifla_syed/_O2A1925.jpg","Name_English":"Ifla and Mehran Syed","Language":"en","Disability":["recxiHVc0FinkZpyx"],"Gender":"Female","Instagram_Content":"Mehbooba and her husband Mohammed Syed Bhat, a farmer from Pethbugh village in Kashmir’s Anantnag district, were distressed when they realised both their son and daughter were born with deafness – Ifla in 2004 and Mehran in 2005. But they were determined to educate them. In around 2009, they came to know about Javed Ahmed Tak’s Zaiba Aapa Institute of Inclusive Education in Bijbehara. But transport was a major obstacle: the school was nearly 18 km away. Syed swore: “I will find a way to convey them there even if it means having to sell my land.” \n\nTaking the kids to school meant going to the district headquarters Anantnag and then to Bijbehara by whichever method available: sharing a taxi, asking for a lift on some mode of transport and sometimes walking part of the distance. Ifla and Mehran studied there until Class 8 and completed Class 12 in Abhinandan Home for deaf and blind students in Rambagh, Srinagar. \n\nThe siblings have extracurricular interests too. Mehran loves playing badminton while Ifla is good at sketching, drawing and designing. Both are dead set on finding employment, preferably in government jobs, and acquiring financial independence. Mehran has done a data entry course and is going through distance learning via IGNOU. Ifla is doing a one-year ITI course. The main roadblock for them is the lack of easy access to specialised guidance. They rely heavily on a shared mobile phone to watch informative videos and hunt for opportunities for education and employment. Which course to pursue, how to prepare for employment, what kind of government opportunities are there – these are issues they themselves have to solve.","Quote":"“We want to be independent and find good jobs but we have no one to guide us”","Status":"Published","Video":null,"Website_Content":"In 2004 when Mehbooba and her husband Mohammed Syed Bhat, a farmer from Pethbugh village in Kashmir’s Anantnag district, had their first child, they named her Ifla, which means success in Arabic. She was a toddler when a close relative noticed that she wasn’t responding to sound. The parents tested her hearing by making different loud noises such as rattling kitchen utensils close to her ears but she didn’t react. They were disheartened when they realised she couldn’t hear. And when Mehran was born a year later their cup of sorrow overflowed when they discovered that he, too, was born with the same disability.\n \nLiving in a village with a population of a few thousands, far away from, and unaware of, any form of support for the disabled, the couple could only imagine a dismal future for their children. But gradually they realised there was no point in sighing and crying over their fate. Mehbooba would watch schoolchildren passing by their home and ask her husband, “Why can’t our children too go to school like them?” Her determination was infectious; Syed too decided to somehow educate them despite his struggle to put food on the table.\n \nAt first they admitted Ifla and Mehran to a school under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. Then, in around 2009, they came to know about Javed Ahmed Tak’s Zaiba Aapa Institute of Inclusive Education in Bijbehara. But there was a major obstacle: transport. The school was nearly 18 km from their home in Pethbugh. Mehbooba demanded why they couldn’t move to a city for better opportunities but Syed swore: “I will find a way to convey them to this school even if it means having to sell my land to afford their fees and transport.”\n \nTaking the kids to school meant dividing the commute into two halves. At first they would go to the district headquarters Anantnag either by sharing a taxi or getting a lift from someone. From Anantnag if they missed the taxi that would get them to the school on time they would once again try asking for a lift or find some other mode of transport or even walk part of the distance. Despite these difficulties the couple considers itself fortunate that they found a school that could support their children living in a relatively remote area. \n \nIfla and Mehran studied there until Class 8. Meanwhile, the couple had had another daughter, Saboora, who could hear and speak; she is now 15 and preparing for her Class 10 board exams. In fact it was Saboora who, along with her father, answered our questions about her siblings. The family communicates by signing, she told us. \n \nAfter Class 8, another important decision lay ahead of them. A family acquaintance had a daughter who was also deaf and unable to speak. Together, the two families decided to send the three children to Kashmir’s oldest special school: Abhinandan Home in Rambagh, Srinagar, meant for students with blindness, deafness, and visual and hearing impairment. They studied there till Class 12. \n \nIfla and Mehran have keen interests beyond their studies too. Sports and arts have led them in different directions: Mehran loves playing badminton and likes cricket too; Ifla is good at sketching, drawing and designing. Both, however, are united in their strong desire for employment (preferably in government jobs) and financial independence. Class 12 was not the limit of their education. Mehran has done a data entry course and is going through distance learning via IGNOU, the national open university, while Ifla is pursuing a one-year Industrial Training Institute (ITI) course.\n \nThe main roadblock for the siblings is the lack of easy access to specialised guidance. There was no one to advise them on the best paths for their careers and higher education, and so they took to navigating the systems themselves. They rely heavily on a shared mobile phone to watch informative videos and hunt for opportunities for education and employment. Syed’s biggest wish too is that Ifla and Mehran find good jobs and not have to pursue the family occupation of farming. One hopes they achieve “ifla” – success – in the years to come.\n","State_name":"Jammu & Kashmir","Display_Order":273}}},
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