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Family receives departed daughter’s medal from Omar
An old man with a flowing white beard followed on the dais by a woman cradling a toddler in her arms on Monday caught the attention of guests at the Kashmir University’s annual convocation ceremony. Ashiq Hussain reports.
An old man with a flowing white beard followed on the dais by a woman cradling a toddler in her arms on Monday caught the attention of guests at the Kashmir University’s annual convocation ceremony. When the name of Syed Nasreen Rufai was announced as the winner of a gold medal for her PhD in human resource development, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah expected to see a lady walk up the stage.
But when he realised Nasreen’s 16-month-old infant, father and her sister were to receive it on her behalf after her untimely death, Abdullah joined the audience in giving the family a standing ovation. Nasreen died on March 4 of a cardiac arrest.
The 33-year-old scholar was among 200 students selected to receive an award from the Chief Minister, but fate willed otherwise. “How shall I describe this moment? She is in her grave and I am receiving her award,” said her 65-year-old father Syed Ghulam Mohammad Rufai, a shawl trader.
Born in a middle class family, Nasreen started her education at a government school on the city’s outskirts.
After her graduation and a master’s degree in Commerce from Kashmir University, she completed a doctorate in human resource development in Tourism in 2007.
She left her job as the editor of the Islamia College of Science and Commerce’s business journal to get married in August 2007 and move to Dubai with her husband.
She had returned to Sringar just a few months back. Holding her nephew Abdullah Syed, Syed Mudasir Rufai could not control her tears when Abdullah made the child wear his mother’s medal. “She left no stone unturned to complete her studies. She was papa’s darling,” Mudasir told HT.
Perhaps inspired by her elder sister’s academic brilliance, Mudasir, 29 is also pursuing a master’s in education from Kashmir University.
