KOZHIKODE: For the residents of Poonch- the border district in the northernmost state of Jammu and Kashmir - life is all about cross-border firing and shelling. In this precarious situation, education of children in Poonch has turned out to be a difficult affair which forced them to travel to Kozhikode and other parts of the country for better education and living. Some among them are right now the students of Kashmiri Home in Markaz Karanthur. Now, the students are in cloud nine after five among them secured A grades in various competitions at the School Kalolsavam.
Meet Nazar Mahmood, Mahmood Ahamed, Faizan Raza, Mohd Rehan and Bilal Ahmed of Classes X and XI, who secured A grade in Urdu poem writing, Urdu story writing and Urdu speech. Though some of these students reached Markaz when they were in eighth standard, they couldn’t participate in the Kalolsavam, due to the Covid break. Nazar Mahmood secured A grade in Urdu speech, Mahmood Ahamed got A grade in Urdu poem writing, Faizan got A grade Urdu story writing, Mohd Rehan secured A grade in Urdu speech and Bilal got A grade in Urdu poem writing.
Mazar Mahmood, class 11 student of Markaz, told TNIE, “Education back in our home state is not that easy as unpredictable incidents unfold in our village daily.” We were indeed excited to get an opportunity to travel all the way from Kashmir to Kerala for our education. Urdu is our forte and hence participating in various competitions in Urdu was exciting. But we were indeed surprised to see Malayali students taking the effort to learn the language and participate in various competitions under the Urdu language category, he added.
At present, there are over 100 students at the Kashmiri Home of Markaz. Every year around 30 school-going students from various districts of Jammu and Kashmir leave for Markaz for their education. They carry with them the dream of hope and betterment for themselves and also for their families back in Jammu and Kashmir.