Gems of the State

TNN Bureau. Updated: 2/7/2017 10:44:47 PM We the Women

By: AKRITI JAMWAL

Every year around Republic day, State Awards are announced for individuals excelling and contributing immensely in different arena. As we know the purpose is to honour achievers, to recognize and encourage them and to inspire others to give their best out there, by putting examples of these exceptional achievers out on a platform for the public to see. Every year varying number of awards are given to boast the morale and fill in enthusiasm in the hearts of aspirants. This year 31 personalities were selected for State Awards for their contribution and performance in their respective fields. Out of 31 awardees announced, 9 are women.
Though the count is not evenly distributed but considering the count of women recipient of State Awards in last ten years this has been the best so far; 4 out of 24 in 2016, 1 out of 8 in 2015, 3 out of 17 in 2014, 0 out of 13 in 2013, 1 out of 27 in 2012, 0 out of 11 in 2011, 7 out of 26 in 2010, 3 out of 17 in 2009 and 1 out of 17 in 2008. Being a women oriented page, it is our responsibility to highlight these women.Let's get to know briefly these 9 brilliant women of Jammu and Kashmir.

Mahmeet Syed, Singer
On a mission to promote Kashmiri music among millions, all over the world, this girl from Kashmir has gone to become a sensation in the industry. Mehmeet's singing career started at an early age of six, performing on the stage of her school, the Presentation Convent. Her mother Yasmeen Mir, a music graduate, was an inspiration for the young Mehmeet. Though one can say she was born with the genes, we cannot come near to fathom the efforts it takes to make it big in the field. In 2004, still a teenager, Mehmeet made it to lime-light as she experimented with Kashmiri music, to create her first video album titled "CholhamaRoshayRoshay", released in 2005 and created instant ripples not only in the Kashmir valley, but as far as USA, UK, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. Following, she released six additional albums and each one maintained the top spot for months and in some cases, years.
However, Mehmeet stopped stopped performing in 2007 because of her mother's illness, for nearly 4 years until her mother passed away. In 2014, Mehmeet made a comeback and started working on her brand new video album. Early 2015, she did her first ever concert in New York, Los Angeles, Texas, Washington DC and several other cities in the USA. All of her concerts were sold out creating a huge wave on the social media and success of her USA concerts was followed by additional international concerts in Sydney, Melbourne, Auckland, Abu Dhabi and Dubai. This resulted in a renewed love for the Kashmiri music among the Kashmiri diaspora. It only made sense that she was given the state award this year for performing Arts.
It isn't the first time that Mehmeet has received such prestigious award; besides winning numerous awards for reviving Kashmiri music and for influencing the youth of Kashmir to follow the path of peace and love, she has also been nominated for fourth highest Civilian award of the country, 'Padma Shree'. Mehmeet also received an achievement award from the President of India A. P. J Abdul Kalam personally.Despite of her fame and busy schedule, Mehmeet managed to acquire not one but three Masters Degrees from the University of Kashmir and Indra Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU). She is passionate about learning and is currently taking lessons to play violin.

Sabbah Haji, Educationst
Born in Dubai, Sabbah traces her roots back to Breswana village of Doda. Completing her school education in Dubai and later graduated from Bangalore when the family shifted back to India in 1997. She has worked at good positions, in various capacities, for several prestigious institutions and could have made further big in her career but a visit to her ancestral village changed things forever for her. As the 2008 unrest in state broke down the daily life severly, Sabbah's return to Breswana around the same time only to see that nearly two generations of villagers had no education due to the apathetic attitude of successive governments and militancy, made her quit her city life and dedicate herself to the service of the people.
A year later, Breswana had its very own Haji Public School (HPS) up and running, all thanks to Sabbah's dedicated hard work and equally because of her uncle, Nasir Haji and mother, Tasneem Haji's support. Sabbah is the Director of this school, which is a not-for-profit school and works for the education of the students from many nearby villages. Sabbah raises funds through social media sites and invites volunteers to teach at her school that has seen no drop-outs in the past five years. The volunteers, who live among the villagers, teach for a period of three months. They spend time with students and make their efforts to erase negative impressions of outsiders through their selfless efforts, hard work, and dedication. The volunteers are not paid, but they are provided with food and lodging. Till December 2016, Haji Public School has had over 62 teaching volunteers from Canada, Singapore , the US , South Africa, France and India. Several of them have returned for multiple long-term stints with Haji Public School since they find themselves invested in and attached to the students and the work to be genuinely satisfying.
Sabbah updates daily happenings about the school and her village on various social websites. At CONVERGE 2016, YKA's flagship event, Haji shared her powerful story through a series of photos of breaking barriers and starting change to an audience of over 1500 people. It was only due that Sabbah was given the award for Social Reforms & Empowerment, as the recognition of the selfless service she has been rendering since almost past one decade.

Tajamul Islam,
World Kick Boxing Champion

This Eight-year-old wonder girl from the state is the perfect picture of its coming future. While the turmoil in Kashmir is something we all want to stay in past only, it is stories like that of Tajamul which strengthen our hopes further, shining as the bright ray of sun in the dark sky of Kashmir, surrounded by unrest and troubles all along. Fighting all the odds, this class Two student from Bandipora districtcreted history becoming the first ever player from the sub-junior category to win a gold medal in the world Kick Boxing Championship. Let that sink in; a girl child from Kashmir becoming the world champion. Such enormous is Tajamul's success.
Tajamul's journey began around 2 years back when she insisted on doing Kickboxing she had seen the boys practicing in her backyard. The dream of then 6 years old Tajamul was encouraged by her father, who being a driver I a construction company somehow manages to make the ends meet but did everything to ensure her daughter pursue her dream. And Tajamul has not disappointed him one bit. She started off with winning the gold medal in Jammu and Kashmir State Wushu Championship, before making her mark in 2015 when she won the gold medal in sub-junior category National Kickboxing Championship in New Delhi.
However it was only in 2016 that she stunned the world. Tajamul participated in the World Kickboxing Championship event in Italy with support from Kickboxing Federation of India. In five days, Tajamul won six games and wrote history defeating her rival from the United States in the finals to become the world champion in kickboxing. She is also the first player ever from the sub-junior category to grab a gold medal in World Kickboxing Championship. If there was anyone deserving for state award this year, it was Tajamul.

Meenal Gupta, Chess player
This 14 years old Jammu girl has been bringing laurels to the state since past 5 years but her biggest achievement came last year as she won the gold medal, staying undefeated in the nine-round event in the Commonwealth Chess championship held in Waskaduwa, Sri Lanka. More than 500 players and officials from 11 commonwealth countries took part in the event. This class IX student of KendriyaVidyalaya (KV) Sunjuwan, won an individual gold medal for India in U-14 girls' category.
Meenal's journey as a chess player started at the age of just nine years when she participated in Grandmasters event held in Chennai in the year 2009. She has won the silver medal in National School Chess Championship in Girls under-13 category in June, 2014 and has participated in around 52 state, national and international level championships in total, wining innumerable medals and appreciations. The number one women chess player of the Jammu and Kashmir for past 2 years, Meenal has been putting in 4 to 6 hours of hard work and practice every day without fail. She has to take off from her school sometimes, she confesses.
Seeing her idol in legends like Garry Kasparov and VishvanathanAnand, Meenal is your girl next door but with ambitions as high as sky. While her favourite pass time is watching comedy TV shows and movies, her dedicated hardwork would make her seem like the most serious person you will ever come across. Currently ranked 12 in the entire Asia in her age category, Meenal has set her eyes on even bigger targets. State Award for outstanding sports personality for Meenal is yet another recognition to this pride of the Jammu and Kashmir.

Nipu Jamwal, Judoka

Nipu Jamwal is one of the pioneers of the sports in the state as this girl has not only been participating in the Judo all over the country and world but also bringing laurels to the state since more than past one decade. An alumnus of Army School, Ratnuchak, Nipu was introducedto the sports by her teacher Rosy Jamwal andthereafter she never looked back. Her initial training begun in the MA stadium of the city where her talent and skill was further worked upon and groomed by the coaches and instructors. Soon the hard work started paying off as Nipu begun bringing laurels to the state in the form of medals, in Inter-University Championship and State Championships.
It didn't take long before she proved the confidence instated in her right and went on to win the gold medal in Asian JudoChampionship in Lebanon, when she was second-year student of arts. Nipu defeated her rivals fromthe Asian continent to clinch the medal in 45 kg category. For this achievement she was also rewarded by then Chief Minister Omar Abdullah who announced an award of Rupees 5 lakh for her, back then.
Nipugives credit for her success to her family, particularly herfather, who keeps on encouraging her to meet the challengeshead-on.She asserts that she does not get intimidated by players from any part of the worldand have been able to beat top judokas world over just because of her mentaltoughness and rigorous workouts thrice a day. Participating in prestigious world championship for what is probably the longest period for state, winning medals while at it,Nipu Jamwal has truly been honoured and her services recognized with this state award.

StanzlinLaskit, TashiLaskit, RigzenDolker andTseringAngmo, Mountaineers

While the political circumstances have often made two regions of the state- Jammu region and Kashmir region- rise heavily on the canvas often depressing the beautiful part of the state that Ladakh is, the state awards that came out this year changed things for once as theseLadakhi girls dominated the list. In the nine women awarded this year, 3 belonged to Jammu region, 2 to Kashmir but what took the cake away was inclusion of 4 girls from Ladakh.
These 4 girls- namely StanzlinLaskit, TashiLaskit, TseringAngmoand RigzenDolker, the former three studnets of class 12- made the state of Jammu and Kashmir proud as they were the part of the first-ever all girls expedition of the National Cadet Corps (NCC) that scaled the highest peak of the world, the Everest. It is another huge achievement that of the 10 girls selected from all over the India for the expedition, nearly half (40 percent) of them belonged to our state. For the expedition, over one hundred cadets were selected in trials held pan-India. These cadets then underwent a special mountain course at HMI, Darjeeling; fifteen cadets were selected for the next phase based on their performance. In August 2015, the team set off on the second pre-Everest expedition to Mount Trishul (23,360 ft), and from fifteen, ten girl cadets were selected for the Everest Expedition, post which the cadets underwent a month-long intensive winter training at the world's highest battlefield in Siachen Glacier, at the Indian Army's Siachen Battle School, before setting course for Nepal.
The expedition succeeded in two consecutive days as two batches comprising of five girls each, scaled the peak on May 21 at 11:00am and May 22 at 07:40am. The expedition comprised of cadets namely- RigzenDolker, TashiKaskit, TrishalaGurung, StanizLaskit, PoojaMehra, BaljeetKaur, Lalrintluangi, TseringAngmo, SulaxchanaTamang and KumariNutan. These four girls made it through every test and hurdle and summit the highest mountain in the world. Not only the state awards to these girls honoured their achievement but also brought on the map of the state, the region they come from.


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