Date: 27 July 2014 Time: 3:00pm 5:00pm

By this day, I had had two interactions with Nuheen, including the one during Hastantaran.
From both the handover document and the interactions I was able to form a rough picture
of her personality, her interpersonal skills and her strengths and weaknesses. The first thing
I noticed about her was that she was quite introverted in nature, something consistent with
what the previous mentor too had to say. But by this day she had become quite comfortable
with the interactions and had begun to express herself and her expectations without being
prompted to do so. She is an extremely hardworking student, brilliant in academics. She
works tirelessly to improve in every respect. She however, is quite weak in spoken and
written English owing to the medium of instruction being Urdu prior to 9
th
Std. Despite that I
must say that within a year she has quickly understood the language and is able to decipher
what the sentences mean on most occasions. Nuheen is soft spoken and a very responsible
kid which I could see from her concern for her parents and her siblings. Nuheen however,
doesnt participate much in many extra-curricular activities which is worrying because this
might hinder her overall development as an individual. She also needs to improve her
geometry which might be the only stumbling block when it comes to performing well in
Mathematics. But, it is bound to improve as her understanding of English also develops with
time.
For this visit, I had a short English prose with me for Nuheen to read and then tell me about
it in her own words. However, after reaching her home, this plan had to be altered as she
really needed help with Geometry for her upcoming exams. Seeing a worried and nervous
look on her face, I decided to help her with the concepts. For the remaining time, I
conversed with her over topics ranging from her favourite colour, actors and actresses,
sports, subject to her ambitions and how she goes about her life every day. As I talked to her
and mentored her during those two hours, I really felt proud of her as she battled her
inhibitions and problems every day and had not let the bright student in her die. Her
enthusiasm to learn about new things really amazed me. Having myself been in a very
complaining state of mind for almost the whole week, I drew inspiration from this 10
th
std
kid and tried to infuse some more into her, for even though she needed it much more than
me, she would never complain or ask for it. I could really sense that she as an individual was
very much similar to the kind of person I am, and I felt privileged to have understood the
same, which meant that I could really help her out with almost everything. This whole day
had been about learning more about myself, what I might have been like as a kid, through
the interactions with Nuheen. I could immediately juxtapose the kid that I was and the adult
that I am now and within that moment, I could feel a smile on my face. It was a very deep
realization as to what the whole of this year as a mentor is going to mean to me.
As students, we tend to get bogged down by various trivialities. But going to Nuheens home
always makes me forget those and second time in a row I could feel a new energy. It just
made me realize how important dreams are no matter where we are, which community we
belong to or how much money we have. Nuheen unknowingly inspires me to dream and
pursue them with all my might, and I as a human being strive to do the same for her.