Always in our memories: Bushra Farooqui remembered on her 43rd birthday

Tributes paid to the mountaineer at her former school, St Joseph’s Convent School

KARACHI: The hall of St Joseph's Convent School echoed with the voice of Bushra Farooqui as the eyes of the audience members filled with tears when her family paid tribute by showing a video of her at a school in Gilgit-Baltistan.

A mountaineer by passion, educationist by wish and banker by profession, Farooqui last spoke to her mother on September 4, 2015, after which her mother never saw her bright smile or courageous face again. Her family remembered her on her 43rd birthday at the school in which she spent her childhood.

Bushra's sister, Aisha, and the rest of her family paid tribute by compiling pictures from her school, college and professional life in a video. "We thought about whether Bushra would like what we are doing for her but today these memories make me feel as if she is here with us," said Aisha. The video consists of Bushra's achievements from when she was in school to when she went to Gilgit-Baltistan to build a school and work for under-privileged children's education.

For Bushra's sixth and seventh grade teacher, Mrs Kapadia, she was a short, curly-haired girl filled with ambition to do something big in life. "She was an extraordinary student and sportswoman who won sports cups every year," she recalled. Bushra will always be remembered by everyone as she was not only a mountaineer but an educationist who has lit a flame that everyone has to take forward, she added.

Her uncle, Hamza Farooqui, who is a writer and scholar of Urdu literature, described her life in two lines 'bohat chamki, lekin jald bujh gai' [She shone brightly, but her flame was extinguished too soon]. "She was a martyr, she gave her life for children and others," he said with pride.

For renowned mountaineer Hasan Sadpara, Bushra was a sister who opened a school for the children of his area and gave him hope for his remote area where there was no proper school.

"Bushra for the world would be a tennis champion, mountaineer or philanthropist but for me she was my Bushra khala," said her niece, Noor Saeed. "I remember how she and I loved to eat kulfi and pani puri [together]," she said.

How her family remembers her

Bushra's brother, Sohaib Kamran Farooqui, remembered her forcing him to go cycling in Dubai. "It was winter and I did not even have a jacket or glasses but she forced me to go and made me enjoy it," he said with a reminiscent smile.

Sister Furheen Farooqui remembered Bushra as the life of their house. "If she was in the room then the energy would be far more than one can even imagine," she remembered with a heavy heart. Bushra was the planner for everything, she used to make the effort to bring us together — she was always ready to go out and have an adventure, Furheen said.

Aisha termed her sister as a goal oriented person. She said Bushra made her life and in her own way, she was the best at planning things.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 21^st,  2015.