Tanveer Rashid Magrey

On a fine day, in 2008, a needle-worker, Manzoor Ahmad and his wife were blessed with a baby boy whom they named Zahid. This was a rare moment for the couple. They were both happy and sad at the same time.

Unlike their elder son’s birth, they didn’t distribute sweets among their relatives and neighbours this time. Amidst melancholy and hopelessness, the couple returned home from the hospital with shattered dream as their second kid Zahid was born with only one limb.

The people of Meeripora, a quaint village six kilometres from main chowk of Magam on Srinagar- Gulmarg highway in central Kashmir’s Budgam district, also received this good and bad news together.

People from the village started visiting their home to express sympathy with the family. Since then the flow of visitors to Zahid’s two-storey house is not declining even 11 years down the line as God had written a different story for him.

A considerable number of people still turn up on a daily basis to meet Zahid, a boy born with only one leg, who is hitting the headlines in media for his miraculous art across the region. Manzoor and his wife, who hardly make the two ends meet, would never have imagined the wonders Zahid would be doing with only one limb.

Beating an untrodden path, Zahid has brought laurels in martial arts and cycling and has earned fame not only in the region but across India.

“I want to fulfill my dream of becoming a champion in cycling and martial arts. I will leave no stone unturned to achieve this”,

says Zahid.

Zahid grabbed the first position in cycling and dancing in 17th Anjali National Festival. To mitigate the sufferings whacked by poverty on them, he did not refrain from going an extra mile to reach the acme in his chosen field despite his physical constraints.

“Earlier, we had no idea that there was anything that Zahid could do, but his coach Mohd Yousuf sahib opened the gates of hope for us. Winning such awards gives us recognition”

, says Zahid’s grandfather, Ghulam Ahmad Parray.

“Now I don’t regret that he is lacking something because Allah has bestowed him with something special, that makes him extraordinary”,

he adds.

In the same year, Zahid also won an appreciation award in martial arts in Jammu and was awarded a cash prize of Rs 10,000 by the Governor of Jammu & Kashmir. He was also gifted a bicycle by the Governor this year.“I feel proud that he is my son. He learns martial arts for which he has earned much appreciation. He cycles and even drives a vehicle. He is also a dancer”, says Manzoor who pins high hopes on his son to pull their family out of poverty, he says with smile writ large on his face.

“I don’t earn that much to fulfill all the needs of my family but I want Zahid to study. This is the only way for us to get rid of poverty”,

he adds.

Another person who deserves a special mention in Zahid’s success story is his martial arts coach Mohd Yousuf Parray.

“He is very talented. While scouting for some talent among the specially-abled students in Budgam, I came across him. I could instantly sense that he possesses a special talent. Once I started spending time with him, I got to know different shades of him”,

recalls Yousuf.