Daring to Dream

Shafaq Zareen Shabaaz has a dream. She wants to fly an Air Force plane in a military fatigue. At the age of 20 she might be a little too young to realise her dream but she has nontheless achieved quite a lot. Shafaq has been awarded the best woman National Cadet Corps (NCC) cadet in the Bengal and Sikkim circle.

“I was always fascinated by Army uniform with rifles and guns to boot. I have been fortunate enough to live that dream through the NCC,” says Shafaq.

A B Sc student of Hari Mohan Ghosh College in Garden Reach,Shafaq dreams of joining the Army through the short service commission. Accordingly,she has carefully chosen her subjects so that she can get into the Army in the near future.

Shafaq comes from a modest family. Her father,Md Shabaaz Alam,is a commercial artist who makes posters and festoons. She lives in a rented house in Kidderpore in Kolkata. However,despite their modest resources,the family has always supported Shafaq in her ambitions. Coming from a minority family,Shafaq says that in the three years of her training she has not come across any Muslim cadets.

“Whenever I went to any camp I found that there were no Muslim cadets. I felt so lonely. I always thought why minorities do not want to join such training,” said Shafaq.

Shafaq said that the biggest change she wants to make is in the attitude of her community where girls are not allowed to venture out and participate in co-curricular activities. To Shafaq the NCC training helped a lot. It gave her the confidence to face challenges in life.

“I now feel that I am different from others. The training has opened up new vistas for me in life and I feel that I can achieve them,” she said.

Other than using rifles and getting to wear the Army uniform Shafaq as a cadet has visited various places in the country and participated in several camps in the university.

“I got a chance to click pictures with Rahul Gandhi…something I could never have imagined,” said Shafaq.

Her achievement is that she is not only one of the best NCC cadets but Shafaq is actively involved in politics. She is the vice-president of the college union and an active member of the Students Federation of India (SFI).