Nerves of steel: Battling adversities with courage — and a sewing machine

The 28-year-old aims to become the most skilled tailor in the city.

RAWALPINDI: In today’s frenzied world, keeping pace with both legs intact is enough of a challenge, but to lose the use of both legs and still remain in the race is a sheer show of will power. Such is the determination of Muhammad Ishaq, a 28-year-old man who lost the use of one of his leg due to polio but refused to let circumstances dictate to him and took up tailoring as a profession.

“The happiest day in my life was when I successfully stitched my first suit and got Rs80,” said Ishaq, who is also music lover and was offered his first job when his family moved to Rawalpindi.

However sometimes the test for the strong minded is more than the able bodied -- Ishfaq lost his second leg in 2007 to an illness. He had to quit his tailoring job but he refused to give in. “Since then I have been stitching clothes at home.”

He stitches clothes for both ladies and gents, but specialises in gents clothes.

Ishfaq’s workstation is in a small room in Nadeemabad, Rawalpindi, where he works at his sewing machine. “I want respect. I always tried not to depend on others,” he said.

A mother’s love

Ishfaq remembers the role his mother played in helping him achieve his goals. “I remember the days when my mother would take me to the tailor’s shop where I was trained. Some people would offer me money seeing my physical condition, this embarrassed me but I never accepted it as the last thing I wanted was to be labelled a beggar.”

He became an apprentice at a tailor shop at the age of 13, where he trained for four years before moving to Rawalpindi.

Ishfaq’s mother, Shakreen Bibi, said “the only thing that worried me was who will take care of him after my death”. So she took him to learn stitching so that he will be able to become independent of his family.

Currently Ishfaq owns a stitching machine at home and is satisfied with his circumstances.

But he will not stop at his current level of expertise. “My dream is to become the most skilled tailor in the city and have hundreds of pupil working for me. I want to be an example for people with physical disabilities and give them the message that they too can lead normal lives.”

Published in The Express Tribune, December 5^th, 2011.