Zahra speaks

A few months ago, I was invited to participate in a conference. The forum was on the national level for the women with disabilities. As the conference was held in Lahore I decided to partake but when I reached the venue I was extremely shocked to see that the venue was not wheelchair accessible and had more than 7 stairs on the entrance. When we enquired from the staff, they bluntly asserted that they will lift my chair up to the entrance of the hotel. Although everything was fantastic in that hotel. It was extremely shameful that despite being informed about the nature of the conference beforehand, the management did not arrange anything to facilitate the people with disabilities who were about to participate in the conference. The conference was aimed to address the issues faced by the people with disabilities in the society and the very location where we were discussing the problems was itself wheelchair inaccessible, the irony is unmistakable! Recently, it was my sisters birthda...

After my first surgery, I was in a very crucial state as my vertebra was not completely supporting the activity of my neck due to its incomplete structure. At that time, the young doctors were on a strike and all the activities of the hospitals were abandoned so my crucial surgery was delayed due to this issue. At this point in time, the doctor himself stated that a little mismanagement with the movement can cause a collapse so in that span of 2 weeks we were continuously living on the edge and additionally I was discharged from the hospital as my next surgery was going to occur in a government hospital. As I was discharged, a very difficult phase of my ailment began. I had to lie straight on my back so that any unusual movement would not happen to result in any collapse. I was always a very active teenager and I never thought that there will be a time when I will be confined to my bed doing nothing but look write up on the wall to discover fascinating artworks from the cracks in th...

The power of words is magnificent, it can either break or make somebody in a matter of seconds. Buddha rightly said, "Whatever words we utter should be chosen with care for people will hear them and be influenced by them for good or ill." It depends on the speaker that how he influences the listener to think and act in a positive manner. Even the general statements that we give in our routine can have a very tremendous impact on somebody. Words are a powerful weapon that can move anyone to the core. While I was striving, I found a very old book in my storeroom. It was the Zahir by Paulo Coelho. I started reading this book and realized that the words were actually drilling into my soul. The plot of this book was love and how it connects somebody with a superlative authority. The storyline revolves around the narrator (famous for his writing on spirituality) who goes on a life-changing journey in search of his disappeared wife. He travels all the way from Paris to Kazakhstan...

Confinement is merely in one's mind because one can find anything that they look for if the intentions are pure. I was in a need to find the meaning of my life. With the enormous support of my friends and family, there were certainly some more things that made me able to grasp beyond the walls of my house. Cricket which might be just a game for a few people but it was not just a game from me as it helped me get a direction out of the darkness that prevailed my life at that time. I first fell in love with this game in the year 2009, when Younis Khan brought the T20 World Cup Trophy home. He was and still remains my favorite cricketer although he was later joined by Misbah Ul Haq in my favorite cricketers' league. When I went in for my surgery, I still remember the world cup 2011 was going on and my mind was struck by a very important match Pakistan was playing that day. It dimmed the effect of a very hard event that was going on in my life. The semi-final of that particular wo...

One of the most initial indications of my ailment was a weakness in my right arm and hand. In a span of a few weeks, I lost my hand grip which meant that I could not hold a pen and hence I had to give up my studies to go for treatment. I still remember the day when I went into the classroom and I could not sit due to tremendous pain in my back. My teacher was getting so enraged and ultimately, she asked me to leave the class and go home to take some rest. Sadly this was the day when I went to my school for the last time as a student. I was an O level student and was supposed to appear for my final exams in 2 months when this ailment seized me. I was very enthusiastic about my studies. My preparation was in full-fledged but right before my exams, I had to give up my studies because I could not even hold a pen let alone appearing in my exams. Obviously, as a teenager, this was a very heartbreaking circumstance to accept that all the effort and hard work was going in vain. With every pa...

The transition from an impeccably healthy individual to being in a wheelchair is very hard. It wasn't easy for me either but it gets harder when you don't get any backing from your friends, family and the society. I was lucky because I got support from my incredible family as they pulled me out from a phase of disparity into being grateful for what I have despite the agony I had to undergo. Everything changed but the only thing that didn't change was my hope and believe that everything will be alright. Life can be pretty hard at times but the only way we can get over this severity is by believing in ourselves and The Almighty. When you cannot control a situation it is best to submit it to the most superlative authority: God! Any set of circumstances that tests your patience is sort of a trial from the Almighty to see how we deal with the muddle and still be grateful to Him for all his blessings. I know all of this seems to be very dramatic but it is true. Our plans are al...