LUCKNOW: Defying darkness and silence, Sarah Moin has scripted a success tale again. A student of Christ Church College, Lucknow, who cannot hear, speak, or see, Sarah has scored an extraordinary 98.75% in the ISC Class XII.Her story is one of grit, intellect, and unbreakable resolve. Sarah lives with sarcoidosis, a rare condition that gradually took away her vision, hearing, and speech. Yet, setbacks never defined her. After securing 95% in Class X – a milestone her parents say gave her the confidence to push further – she set her sights even higher and now she is the college topper in class XII.Fondly called ‘Helen Keller’ by her teachers and peers, the girl’s scoresheet is a triumph over her disabilities – 100 marks in geography, 100 in mass media and mass communication, 98 in English, 97 in history, and 96 in psychology. Her grasp over subjects is phenomenal. Ask her anything related to the syllabus by drawing alphabets on her palm with fingers, she comes with instant answers.After beating barriers in education, Sarah sets sights on civil servicesRecognizing her abilities, Sarah’s father chose not to send her to a special school and instead enrolled her in Christ Church College. He even took voluntary retirement from his govt job to guide and support her in the academic journey.“Sarah was born blind but had some hearing ability. But she lost her hearing in Class 3 when sarcoidosis struck. Her previous school was not willing to let her continue her education, so we took her to leading doctors in South India for treatment, but nothing worked and she lost two years,” said her father Moin Ahmad Idrisi.Yet, a determined Idrisi continued the quest and eventually met Christ Church College principal Rakesh Chattree, who admitted Sarah to a special class.Her teacher Salman Ali Qazi recognized her potential and taught her using an Orbit Reader, a device similar to a laptop with a Braille keyboard.Salman was already teaching several students with special needs in a separate classroom, but Sarah was the only one with dual disability.“This journey was not easy. All the content in the books had to be scanned and converted into Word files so that it could be connected to the Orbit Reader and she could read it by placing her fingers on the Braille keyboard. For revision, I used to ask her questions by drawing alphabets on her palm with my finger. She would quickly join them together to form words and then sentences to understand what I was asking,” said her mother Julie Hamid, who is a teacher in a govt school. While Salman Sir helped Sarah at school, Idrisi and Julie taught her at home. Her elder brother, Zohaib Ahmad, a law student at Lucknow University, also helps her in academics.Sarah aspires to become a civil servant, and given her grit and triumphs even those goals look achievable for the modern era’s Helen Keller.
