Dreams a chuff cutter could not slash
Poverty and a life-changing accident failed to force young Muddasir Murtaza into a life of despair and misery.
LAHORE:
Poverty and a life-changing accident failed to force young Muddasir Murtaza into a life of despair and misery.
The 13-year-old cut his right fingers aged four while playing with the chuff cutter in the fields but nine years later, Murtaza grips the tennis racket and plays normally, living the dream of his older brother Mohammad Yaseen who built a court out of mud after watching Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi.
“At that age, I wasn’t too concerned about my fingers,” Muddasir told The Express Tribune. “But with the passage of time, I started thinking about being disabled but it was my brother who supported me and he sacrificed his own dreams for me.
“He never let me feel disabled and taught me tennis.”
Yaseen’s dream – to play tennis in the same manner as the former greats – didn’t come up to plans given the poverty-stricken family they belonged to. However, the enthusiasm and the willingness to defy the odds urged him to train Muddasir despite the disability.
“Fourteen year ago, when I was in class seven, I saw a match between Sampras and Agassi and decided to play tennis knowing that it’s not a team game,” said Yaseen. “It’s a game between two individuals and each one has to work hard at his own but I wasn’t able to make it through given how expensive tennis equipment and training is.”
The passion that burnt within lived on for a decade and Yaseen collected enough money to buy a racket and follow his ambition. With time running out for him, he urged the younger one to take up tennis thrive in it.
Yaseen made a tennis court with mud in the family’s backyard – on the side of their shanty house – and sewed up torn pieces of net to form a decent looking one, stretched across the full width of the court and parallel with the baselines. He also ensured that the two halves were equally divided and while the mud surface was no Flushing Meadows or Roland Garros, it was more than enough to fulfill the humble expectations and ambitions that were given birth by the dream.
The racket needs to be gripped tightly by the first – all four fingers and the thumb – but Muddasir despite his handicap still manages a grip enough to play fluently all the while improving the game.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 1st, 2011.
Poverty and a life-changing accident failed to force young Muddasir Murtaza into a life of despair and misery.
The 13-year-old cut his right fingers aged four while playing with the chuff cutter in the fields but nine years later, Murtaza grips the tennis racket and plays normally, living the dream of his older brother Mohammad Yaseen who built a court out of mud after watching Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi.
“At that age, I wasn’t too concerned about my fingers,” Muddasir told The Express Tribune. “But with the passage of time, I started thinking about being disabled but it was my brother who supported me and he sacrificed his own dreams for me.
“He never let me feel disabled and taught me tennis.”
Yaseen’s dream – to play tennis in the same manner as the former greats – didn’t come up to plans given the poverty-stricken family they belonged to. However, the enthusiasm and the willingness to defy the odds urged him to train Muddasir despite the disability.
“Fourteen year ago, when I was in class seven, I saw a match between Sampras and Agassi and decided to play tennis knowing that it’s not a team game,” said Yaseen. “It’s a game between two individuals and each one has to work hard at his own but I wasn’t able to make it through given how expensive tennis equipment and training is.”
The passion that burnt within lived on for a decade and Yaseen collected enough money to buy a racket and follow his ambition. With time running out for him, he urged the younger one to take up tennis thrive in it.
Yaseen made a tennis court with mud in the family’s backyard – on the side of their shanty house – and sewed up torn pieces of net to form a decent looking one, stretched across the full width of the court and parallel with the baselines. He also ensured that the two halves were equally divided and while the mud surface was no Flushing Meadows or Roland Garros, it was more than enough to fulfill the humble expectations and ambitions that were given birth by the dream.
The racket needs to be gripped tightly by the first – all four fingers and the thumb – but Muddasir despite his handicap still manages a grip enough to play fluently all the while improving the game.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 1st, 2011.