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Hi, my name is George Abraham and welcome to Eyeway Conversations. My guest today is from Kerala. Her name is Fatima Anshi. She has just scored 99.16% in her plus two exams. She is a musician. She is a polyglot and an aspiring civil servant. Hi Fatima. Welcome.
Hi. Thanks for having me.
So 99.16! How did it happen?
Well, it's such a long story. It involves a lot of, a lot of hard work, a lot of sleepless nights, a lot of tears that was being shed a lot of determination, a lot of prayers, and the combination of all these factors eventually, along with, you know, the my quest to enrich, to enrich my knowledge, it all led to this result coming up coming out. So, yeah...
I believe that you are probably among the few people who are visually impaired, who chose not to use a scribe, but wrote the exam on a laptop, is that correct?
Yes, I believe so. Yes.
So that would have called for some preparation, right?
Yes, it was, it was a long journey. The ride was quite bumpy. It all started from when I was in 10th grade. That's when I first started to write exams independently without relying on the helping hands of a scribe. It was first done by my cousin Haroon, he scored a resounding victory back then. So then when he did it, I was like, I was wondering, like, what if I do the same thing as well. And at first, I even though I wanted to do this, I was really concerned about the scenarios that might arise because of the risk that I'm taking. My mind was filled with a lot of what else like what if this happens, what if something goes wrong, but during these times, my parents supported me and also since I had a primary knowledge in, in technology, I have been exposed to it ever since I was young, which was the and that exposure was further increased. But then I joined chakshumati the eyes free science camp where I was exposed to different types of technology, then I gained confidence. And then during the pandemic, when like during those six months of isolation, like around six or seven months of isolation, which was close to a year, I started to practice typing, I started practice, I started to practice writing on computer with my parents and those that supported me by my side. And yeah, at first I felt strange, I was so fearful of the outcomes that I might have to encounter. Luckily, I was able to do it. And yes, and then in 10th grade too I got scored for a plus. So I would say it was a long ride to at least get this far.
Fatima, what were the subjects that you did in your plus two?
So the stream that I've taken up was humanities, which involves subjects such as sociology, history, followed by politics, which is one of my political science, which is one of my favourite subjects. And then it had economics and which is then followed by the linguistic subjects, which includes English, and Malayalam. And so there were six subjects in total.
This vision impairment that you have, is this something that you had from birth? Or was it something that you contracted or picked up along the way?
When I was a baby, I was diagnosed with a condition called Microbe Zamia, which causes my nerves to not grow the nerves of the cornea of my eyes to be to not grow and to be damaged. And yes, that's the cause of my condition that I'm suffering. Like blindness.
Tell me a little bit about your childhood.
If I were to be honest with you, My childhood was pretty normal. I grew up having a happy childhood, my mother and my father, both my parents, they often made sure that I felt happy, I felt special. And also they never met me never made me feel like I was, you know, different. I had something missing in my life. I, they never ever made me feel like that. We all whenever they went event or went outside, whenever they went on various road trips, they would always take me with them. And they would always make me see the world through their eyes. And also, I was a that was the time when I was introduced to music from a very young age, like when my parents, like heard me sing along and stuff my parents were like, so encouraging of my skills. So I grew up having a normal, pretty normal, happy childhood with a supportive, amazing parents.
What about your education, you started in a blind school. So tell me a little bit about your early days at the blind school.
So when it comes to my blind school, I was enrolled, in a school called Kerala School for the Blind, which was located in one of the small towns of our district Malappuram. And it was located in a town called Vallikkapatta. So there, I was, like I was enrolled when I was around, I think, four and a half or five years old. And my early days were pretty chaotic, because I used to be a hyperactive child. And I was not quite like adapting to the environment of the school that I've been provided with. I went against all the rules that I've been, you know, that I've been introduced by the school, which I've been returning the school's governing book. And also, I always cause troubles during my early days of school, I found it hard making friends and stuff. And my parents were a little bit concerned. But over time, I got used to it, and I did pretty well from that day onwards.
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I was mostly involved with activities that were related to music, I love learning, I love exploring different parts of music. I had an amazing music teacher that supported me. During that time, I was able to get into that. And also apart from that, I loved learning languages as well from from a very young age, I wanted to immerse myself into different cultures from different parts of the world.
In the 18 years or 17 years of your life. You've learned music, you've participated in various competitions you performed at various levels, you've sung at various levels. So what's your high point as far as music is concerned?
I the highest achievements that I've made was during the time when I started having my recitals, I started to compete against main the mainstream venture, I started to venture into main streams before that I used to compete with people who suffered from almost the similar conditions as me. So venturing into mainstream was the highest point of my career and also the the knowledge that I've acquired in music like which was ranging from the normal surahs to keerthanas that I have been able to learn and also the and also the concept of manodharma that I've been able to master as well, and which I've been able to implement in various competitions that are participated in which I was declared as the winner. And yeah, so that could be considered that relatively be considered the highest point, but I guess, learning music from different parts of the world and incorporating it into my music would be considered as something would be considered as a peak of my musical journey.
So I also understand that you've done some singing for films. Is that right?
Yes, that is right. So as far as films are concerned, I sang for a few films. One of them was called 'At Once'. It was I guess I was around six or seven years old when I was asked to sing for it. So I like, actually, once my it was my music teacher who was behind me, me getting into the, you know, the making an appearance in the musical, the musical or film musical industry. And then a few years later, I also sang in a film called Panda as well. And back then I was, I think, 11 or 12 years old. So yeah, these were the two films that I sang for.
And your language interests. So what are the languages you actually speak?
Well, I speak different languages at varying degrees, for example, I am fluent in languages, I can speak Persian, and apart from English, I can speak Persian and then Turkish as well. And I've been trying to learn Macedonian, a little bit of Kurdish, a little bit of Korean. And also, I've been trying to learn a language called, I just decided to take another direction I went to languages like Amharic, which is spoken, which is considered as one of the official languages of Ethiopia. And then I have been trying to learn Swahili, as well. And then I have also been trying to learn Russian, and, and also a little bit of Spanish as well, I could pick that up all the way. And, yeah, and Romani language, gypsy language, which has been spoken by people, like an ethnic group, which has been scattered around different parts of a Europe, different parts of Asia, and they even extend themselves to North Africa as well.
I guess it's appropriate to ask you this stage, you very small age, you actually have kind of got a reasonable, I wouldn't say mastery, but reasonable hang of several languages. And so how do you go about learning this language, and especially when you are blind, you don't have the opportunity of looking at the script, or learning the script. So it must be all by listening, I guess. So tell us how you actually go about learning a language?
Okay. So there are a lot of ways that I've adopted to learn a language. So one of them is making use of Google Assistant, you know, the Google Translate feature. I, mostly I would ask Google Assistant to translate something that I want to say in a language that I want to learn. For example, I would say like, I say, like how to say I love you in Russian, then Google will say in Russian, you could say я тебя люблю. So then it would translate it for me. And also, I would learn, I would go through various tutorials that have been availed for us on YouTube. So that also work, that also helps me and then I have made a lot of on a different and a lot of people from online by connect. And I've been kind of getting myself connected from different connected with different people from different parts of the world, through different online chat forums, and a few applications like Telegram, Discord, and a few other a few other like websites, as well. Sometimes I used omico or to practice with people. And I would expose my I would make friends with people that I talk. And when I would expose myself to the language, like I mostly adopt the method that I used to learn money as a native language. So yeah, it's exposure, mostly.
I also understand that you have an interest in politics. So tell me, how did you get interested in politics? And how do you go and what is your plan as you go forward?
Ever since my school years, I was kind of interested in getting to know about how our state is governed, how different you know, political institutions, and different political instruments work. And it was mostly and but that interest was further developed ever since I got access to, you know, a wide library of knowledge through the eyes of technology. So that's how books were kind of one of the one of the things that interested me, that made me get into politics, political science. When it comes to moving forward in political science, I would like to learn more about how we have been able to maintain relationships with certain countries, and what are the things that could be done to strengthen the relationship that our country like especially our nation, has the relationship that a nation our nation pursues with other countries? So it's something that that's the direction that I'll be moving towards.
So what is your dream in life as you go forward?
So, in terms of my ambition. My ambition is to become an IAS officer I want to, to get into the Indian Foreign Service. And so how represent our nation and also, I want to travel around the world, I've seen different dimensions of the world through the eyes of technology, but I think that's not enough for me. I, I wanted to experience it in person. And I want to get to know about different cultures in person, I just want to feel it in real life.
You are associated with an organisation, an international organisation called Project to Vision. Yeah, what exactly is Project Vision and what is your kind of association with them?
So the project vision is an international organisation, as you said, it is headquartered at Bangalore. So the duty of this project mission is to, you know, to give more emphasis on the significance of vision, and to provide people with the awareness of the awareness of the importance of eye donation. So it's mostly about providing provide, promoting the significance of vision, and encourage people to come forward to make a big difference in the world by just donating their eyes and providing more opportunities for people who suffer from visual impairment. So that's what our organisation is all about.
You also did mention, in passing that technology has provided you access to knowledge information, trends in the world. Is it just surfing the net, or you also have access to global libraries and so on that you read books from?
Well, apart from surfing the internet, I've also been provided with the access to a global library called the Bookshare Bookshare library, which has been one of the greatest one of the most comprehensive one of the greatest libraries that I've never been exposed to. And it all started when I was 14, I was introduced to it through through the eyes free science camp introduced by chakshumati where I was guided into, you know, guided towards this global library, it has provided me with a wide range of knowledge it has provided, made me explore different genres. And it has also, it has also catered to my needs as well, since, like, you know, my tastes of books have also been met. My expectations have also been met by this, this library as well.
So you read books on politics. So you also do read other genres?
Yes, I do read books on politics. And also, as I mentioned, I read books about mental health sometimes, because I'm kind of curious, curious to know about what like how, like, what the other people's perspectives or views about how the mental health needs to be taken care of and stuff. And also, I would also for entertainment purposes, as well, I would try to make use of you know, we're trying to read books that are related to fantasy, science fiction and stuff. So yeah.
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You have the unique experience of spending part of your educational life in a special school. And you also spent time studying in an inclusive mainstream school what have you actually taken away from both the systems?
Assessing by my experiences like for special school I was mostly I studied with the people who suffered from the same condition as me. It kind of made me feel made us feel aware, aware of the things that we suffer from and how to how to you know, work with it, how to get with it, but at the same time, it kind of isolates us from the mainstream society but when you get into the mainstream you intermingle with the you mingle with the mainstream society so you would be able to pick up how work like how mainstream society works and to a great extent, we if you like, if you put in great efforts, you could kind of integrate with the mainstream society to a greater extent, and this is much more for me, I would say this is much more easier for somebody who suffers from visual impairment as well. And also, for me, another interesting experience, a takeaway that I could talk about is, is the difference of competition. So when I was, when I was studying at the blind school, my class almost had around five to seven kids. So there, we didn't have that much competition in terms of academic achievements. But then, as I got into the mainstream, I was, I had to compete with around 45 or 46 students, and this year, it was 60, around 65 students.
Now would you like to share with us and kind of acknowledge the various people, both within the family and outside, and various other resources that actually made it possible to get you to where you are today?
For sure. So the first, the first existence that I would like to acknowledge is the almighty God, he brought me to live, he provided me with a lot of opportunities that I would forever be grateful for. And secondly, my family, my both my parents, especially my mom, she sacrificed all her dreams, just to provide me with a happy childhood was a safe and adequate and comprehensive environment, a loving, warm embrace, that would still resonate in the true throughout the journey of my life, and also, my music teacher Nusrat sir. So he helps me a lot as well, in terms of music. And then in terms of technology, I would like to express my gratitude, an overwhelming amount of gratitude towards chakshumati, and especially Ramkamal sir, he supported me a lot throughout my future and throughout my journey towards towards a bright future that I envision for myself. So I would like to acknowledge him as well. And so I nothing, words cannot describe how much how grateful I am towards him. And also the Bookshare library as well they they have provided as provided not just me, but the other people who belong to visually impaired as well as other communities who have been aspiring that have been dreaming of enriching themselves of like with knowledge of, you know, a greater deal of broad as a broad range of knowledge. So, on behalf of all of them, I would like to be I would like to express my gratitude towards Bookshare library as well. And then and also all the friends that supported me, although all of my loved ones who loved me and cared for me, and stood by me through thick and then even during the lowest low, the lowest point of my life job. So yeah.
You mentioned your parents, you mentioned your mom and dad, you spoke at length about your Mum, what is the role of your dad?
My dad, he was an amazing, amazing supporter, he has always protected me he always provided me with moral support, he provided me with all the things that that was needed for my education to be pursued. He and also the things that I wanted to do, he was so supportive of me he always encouraged me to do more and more things. He's actually my number one fan, I would say, and I love him more than anything else and there's no nothing that I could ask for in the world. And I wouldn't trade him for anything else in the world. I love him.
Well Fatima, you have reached 99.16. It is a great springboard to the future life. I wish you the very best and may you go from strength to strength.
Thank you so much.
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