On a Sunday morning in June, Muskan Devta’s energy is infectious. She looks like any other 13-year-old, dressed in a pair of shorts and a T-shirt. A grade nine student of Westlake Girls’ High School, she lives with her parents and younger brother in a leafy suburb of Auckland.
But that is about as close to a regular teenager that Muskan gets: In May, she was anonymously nominated for the Pride of New Zealand Award 2014, making her the youngest nominee ever. She was nominated under the category ‘Fundraiser of the Year’. Although she did not win (the results were announced in the first week of August), what has brought Muskan to the threshold of this recognition is a journey replete with hurdles—physical and emotional—that she has sailed over.
Born in Ahmedabad, Muskan was a premature baby, with a condition that is referred to in medical terms as partial hemiplegia; it means one side of the body—in her case the right side—was paralysed. In addition, she had underdeveloped lungs, feeble eyesight, and a hole in her heart.
With so many complications, doctors did not expect her to survive for more than a hundred hours. They were worried that her brain may not instruct her lungs to breathe and her heart to function. “Those were the most excruciating four days of our lives,” says Jaimini, Muskan’s mother.
Muskan, meanwhile, is more concerned about Tiger Shroff. After considering several other Bollywood releases, we settle down to watch the debutant’s film. After learning, with some dismay, of my limited knowledge of the actor, she offers to educate me with all the Bollywood trivia she has gathered about her “current crush”. Muskan then goes on to list the other “heroes” she would love to meet some day; it includes television star Harshad Arora, and actor Paresh Rawal. Somehow, Narendra Modi, too, features in it.
Muskan’s parents decided to immigrate to New Zealand when she was four years old, “to provide her with a child-friendly environment with better medical and support facilities,” says Jaimini.
As a child with special needs, Muskan had to wear braces on her right leg and thick spectacles; her movements were slower than other children her age. “Nobody would want to play with me during lunch time and I would wander around school by myself,” remembers Muskan. Making friends became difficult. “It wasn’t easy to not get affected and not become sad. But how can I expect anybody to accept me when I could not accept myself?” Profound.
It is this acceptance of her reality that keeps Muskan going, says Jaimini. But the big turning point in her life was the birth of her brother Aman on June 5, 2005. (“I chose his name,” claims an excited Muskan). “All that society expected from Muskan, her baby brother never did. He accepted her the way she is. This made Muskan confident and made her more caring towards him,” says Jaimini. Muskan says the outside world ceased to matter to her because she knew that when she went home, she would have his company. “Their bonding has only grown stronger,” adds Jaimini.
The limited amount of social activities in Muskan’s life as a primary school student transformed her into a bookworm. “I found solace in books and in the company of mum who was always there for me,” she says. Muskan ended up spending long hours in the school library.
I am pulled back to the present, as Muskan (Chikoo, or simply Koo, to her parents) launches into tales of her extended family back in India: Aunts, uncles, a cousin she is so close to that they “look like twins”. I am guided through family photographs that adorn the walls of the house. Although the Devta family in Auckland has not been to India for a while, family bonds hold strong, courtesy Skype.
There are different kinds of families. And Wilson Home, a charitable trust for special children in Auckland, is one of them. When the Devta family arrived in Auckland, Muskan started her regular visits—three to four times a year—to Wilson Home. This was the beginning of a close bond between her and her orthopaedic surgeon Terri Bidwell and physiotherapist Jo Walker. When Muskan was nine, during one of her visits to Wilson Home, she learnt that the institution was in need of an exercise bike. Instinctively, she wanted to chip in.
On her way home, she started brainstorming with Jaimini about what she could do to help her beloved Jo and her colleagues. She decided to write a book and sell it to raise money. “It was a decision made at the spur of the moment,” says Muskan. But, given her love of books, an obvious one too. Fed on a steady diet of mythological tales by her grandmother back in India, Muskan decided to write the story of how Ganesha, the god of wisdom and success, got an elephant’s head. Called The Story of Ganesha, the book sale—supported by her family and friends within the Indian community in Auckland—raised enough money to help Wilson Home buy the equipment it needed. “This experience instilled in me the confidence and the value of helping others,” says Muskan
Check out our Festive offers upto Rs.1000/- off website prices on subscriptions + Gift card worth Rs 500/- from Eatbetterco.com. Click here to know more.
(This story appears in the 05 September, 2014 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)
She is the DEVTA of muskaan!!
on Oct 29, 2014Very inspiring and a great example of contribution towards society.Thank you Muskan for the inspiration.
on Oct 5, 2014Congrats!!!
on Sep 6, 2014what to say. :) muskan is the super power girl.an insperation for me and many more.
on Sep 4, 2014Kudos to Muskan. Life worth imitating. Kudos to the caring New Zealand Govt & the People there. Could she have got that treatment and care in Ahmedabad where she was born? Being from Ahmedabad, I just wonder.
on Sep 3, 2014Jaisi Krishna, I appreciate your thoughts. Thanks Muskan.
on Sep 3, 2014Dear Muskan, Thats quite inspiring!!! In a world where people are struggling to come out of simple routine problems you showed the way with your will power. One thing that I liked most in the article is your intention to give back to society which failed to give you much needed acceptence. I wish all the very best your future endeavours and remember your story has inspired me.
on Sep 3, 2014Thanks Satish.
on Sep 3, 2014