"My Wheels are My Wings."

~

It’s another summer day in Jammu and Kashmir. You sit to watch a local basketball game; the ball is moved around until it is finally swept into the net and the audience cheers loudly. The shooter? Jammu and Kashmir’s first female wheelchair basketball-Inshah Bashir.

Athletes are constantly challenged with their stamina, technique, and whatnot. However, being challenged by a disability is far more mentally and physically challenging.

But for Inshah Bashir, a challenge is merely a means to get ahead.

Fascinated by basketball from an early age, Inshah admired the sport faithfully. She grew up in the Budgam district of Jammu and Kashmir and enjoyed her time playing sports with her siblings. She was unstoppable; Inshah engaged in various sports from cricket to volleyball, and of course, basketball, even the term ‘athlete’ couldn’t capture her talent.

Woefully, one diagnosis would shatter her current state of being. She was diagnosed with gastric ulcers. The impact of the gastric ulcers would have been gruesome: frequent bleeding from the mouth, fatigue, dizziness, nausea, and vertigo were just some of the consistent issues. During an episode of fatigue and oral bleeding, Inshah went up to her balcony, but her body couldn’t bear the impact of her ulcers, causing her to lose balance and fall off her balcony. The fall was met with a spinal cord injury and immobilization. Inshah’s dreams shattered right in front of her, while she was in 12th grade. What would become of her athletic ability?

Bashir lost 8 years bedridden. All she did was schoolwork. She entered episodes of depression after her spirit and motivation were killed gruesomely. Fortunately, fate had something else in store.

Bashir left her bed for the first time and met her wheelchair. To help with her treatment, she went to a rehabilitation centre where she was met with immense euphoria. A distinct nostalgic memory-a basketball game was taking place. Bashir was glad to see men bound by wheelchairs enjoying a game of basketball at the centre. There was no female team for Bashir, so she played with the men as the sole female player. It was a coping mechanism to escape the difficulties of her disability and the negativity from certain relatives. Inshah felt alive again, her wheels became her wings.

Bashir played basketball regularly, through this, coaches began to notice and asked to move ahead. Bashir began competing: in 2017, she went to the National Wheelchair Basketball Championship (in Hyderabad), she represented India in the United States at the Sports Visitors Exchange Program, attending multiple tournaments in South Asia, and represented Jammu and Kashmir in Mohali, India.