Mumbai tailor’s ‘dwarf’ daughters rise above obstacles, crack NEET

MUMBAI: For years their diminutive stature made some wonder if they would do anything meaningful with their lives, but the Idrisi sisters — Zubaida (22) who is 3.5-foot tall and Humaira (22) who is 3.9 — have already become mini-celebrities in their Nagpada neighbourhood. They qualified in this year’s medical entrance exam (NEET) and recently secured their MBBS admission.
The Idrisi sisters who live with three other siblings and parents — father Ahsanullah who is a tailor and mother Rukhsar a homemaker — could have not made it to the MBBS course but for a chance meeting with Ashfaque Moosa of Khidmat Charitable Trust last year.
A local NGO runs a dispensary in a corner at Nagpada, which Zubaida and Humaira visited to pick up medicine. Moosa, also called Ashfaque bhai, was at the dispensary then. On hearing that they had abandoned their dream to be doctors, Ashfaque bhai said: “If a six-footer needs 600 marks in NEET to get into MBBS, you need less than half of that”. On further enquiries, the sisters found their condition was covered in the reserved category of “differently disabled” and they could take a shot at NEET.
Next, the sisters landed up at a coaching instituteand were almost turned away by a staffer citing their “inadequate” height. Their photos were sent to the institute’s headquarters in Kota, which approved their admission with 60% concession in fees. “They got so involved in studies that I had to remind them about food,” says their mother. “They have made us proud.”