Naqati Aroob Iqbal
Srinagar, Mar, 28: Maheen shabir 21 years old female hailing from Gojwara area of district Srinagar is pursuing B.SC Home science final year from Women’s College M. A Road Srinagar who is self- taught craft making artist.
During an interview Maheen said that crafting is more like a passion than hobby for me. Besides her studies, she has come up so far with her skills as she crafts and designs different things from paper and available waste materials and turns them into an incredible craft. She is an ambitious girl and has achieved yet so much of her own as she is a self taught craft maker.
The one who despite of her hearing disability by birth as she is deaf and dumb recently lost her mother at such early age raised herself strong and brave.From her childhood deafness, speech- impairement and learning disability had affected her early social development. I was a kind of laughing stock for most of the students in my school but that did not stopped me in realising my ambition.
Maheen says that her father would give her speech therapies at home. He would put his index finger into her mouth and mark the teeth so that Maheen would atleast pronounce basic words.She curbed all the difficulties and turned it into bliss.
While having a conversation with maheen she said that, her life took a different turn when she developed a hobby of making cards of her cousin. She got good response from her and recieved many request for card making and likewise she opened her page and got so many orders. Her family and cousins supported for this. Slowly she got appreciated every where for her work.
After her mother left for heavenly abode, Maheen was unduly pessimistic about her future. But She knew it is not just for fun and appreciations are exploring herself, thus widened her vision and boosted her confidence respectively. This craft making made her not just happy but boosted her creativity level.
Maheen says “I have always found studies difficult not because i cannot read but because it was always difficult to understand what the teacher is teaching’.She would always request her classmates to make her understand the lessons.
No doubt it all started with just a simple hand made card but now she comes up with pretty good things out of paper and waste material like gifted-boxes, simple cards, explosion cards, wall hangings. She is also able to make different hairstyles, mehandi designs and sometimes she does painting too.
She says, “Craft is a part of me. It has given me everything. It’s the expression of my soul. Crafting is like breathing to me, it is just how I live. “
