Nass­er Khan

So much has been writ­ten about young phe­nom Veera Bha­jan since she burst on­to the na­tion­al stage and in­to the na­tion­al con­scious­ness back in 1999. That's the year she wrote and aced the then Com­mon En­trance ex­am, pass­ing for her first choice St Au­gus­tine Girls' High School (SAGHS), and plac­ing in the top 100 stu­dents in T&T.Au­gust born, she gift­ed her par­ents a tiny arm­less bun­dle 23 years ago, kick­ing and scream­ing ready to take on the chal­lenges of the world. And that is ex­act­ly what this dy­namo from cen­tral Trinidad has done in tran­scend­ing these chal­lenges that less­er mor­tals may not have had the men­tal and phys­i­cal strengths to con­quer.

Of­ten de­scribed as in­spi­ra­tional and ex­cep­tion­al, the pe­tite Bha­jan was ad­mit­ted to the bar to prac­tise as an at­tor­ney, in Oc­to­ber, and is now fo­cused on build­ing a suc­cess­ful ca­reer.Pos­sess­ing great courage and de­ter­mi­na­tion to over­come the odds of be­ing born arm­less, she has had to en­dure much ad­ver­si­ty. "I have so much to be thank­ful for, es­pe­cial­ly God and my par­ents."I've had nu­mer­ous chal­lenges and ob­sta­cles, but with the sup­port and love of my par­ents, and self-be­lief and con­fi­dence, I have so far been able to over­come all of them."

From an ear­ly age, her par­ents had en­cour­aged her to use her feet to get ahead. "There was no spe­cial train­ing in­volved, us­ing my feet as my hands just came nat­u­ral­ly. I would pick up pen­cils and oth­er things as a lit­tle girl. Most things that oth­ers can do with their hands, I can do with my feet." Bha­jan is able to write us­ing her left foot and she's com­fort­able nav­i­gat­ing her lap­top with her toes.

"The teach­ers at my pri­ma­ry school... well my teach­ers at all lev­els were en­cour­ag­ing, so can we say teach­ers and friends were very help­ful and en­cour­ag­ing. I was nev­er treat­ed dif­fer­ent­ly at school and I made friends eas­i­ly, and it did help that many of the stu­dents at school al­ready knew me from the area where many of us grew up to­geth­er."De­spite be­ing sub­ject­ed to con­stant stares and nu­mer­ous ques­tions, Bha­jan has al­ways re­ceived the as­sis­tance and en­cour­age­ment of her teach­ers, friends and com­mu­ni­ty through­out her life. Giv­en her re­silience and de­ter­mi­na­tion, it is no sur­prise that she was able to com­plete all lev­els of school and ful­fil her dream of be­com­ing an at­tor­ney.

Al­though she is faced with nu­mer­ous chal­lenges dai­ly, Bha­jan has seized every op­por­tu­ni­ty to live a nor­mal, hap­py life. "Be thank­ful each day for your nu­mer­ous bless­ings and al­ways be­lieve in your­self," she ad­vis­es.Among her more than 40 ac­co­lades and awards, she rates two of them high atop the list: 2004, re­cip­i­ent of Hum­ming Bird Sil­ver Medal for Youth In­spi­ra­tion and De­vel­op­ment, and 2006, Ex­press In­di­vid­ual of the Year.

The Sun­day Guardian caught up with the ef­fer­ves­cent and jovial Bha­jan.

Q: What were your dreams of the fu­ture when you were a kid?

A: I dreamt of be­ing an at­tor­ney-at-law and thank­ful­ly I'm liv­ing my dream to­day.

Where do you see your­self in five to ten years?

I wish to build a suc­cess­ful ca­reer in the le­gal pro­fes­sion and al­so be­come a mo­ti­va­tion­al speak­er.

Who has been the biggest in­flu­ence on your life? What lessons did that per­son teach you?

My par­ents and sis­ter Resh­ma have been the biggest in­flu­ence in my life, and their en­dur­ing love and com­mit­ment have al­lowed me to achieve my best.

What is/are the most im­por­tant les­son/s you've learned in life?

I've learnt to have faith in my­self and al­ways fo­cus on my abil­i­ties rather than my lim­i­ta­tions. I've learnt to be thank­ful each day and keep a pos­i­tive at­ti­tude at all times.

When and where were you born and where did you grow up?

I was born on Au­gust 24, 1988, in Ch­agua­nas and I grew up in Fe­lic­i­ty, Ch­agua­nas.

What area of law do you plan to spe­cialise in?

I have an in­ter­est in cor­po­rate law.

Can you tell me about your re­li­gious/spir­i­tu­al be­liefs?

I'm a de­vout Hin­du and I start­ed at­tend­ing tem­ple with my fam­i­ly from a ba­by. I share a very close re­la­tion­ship with God and strong­ly be­lieve that He will nev­er let me fall.

Do you have a favourite joke you'd like to share with us?

Well, peo­ple hard­ly ever like this joke but I do: Why did Cin­derel­la nev­er make the crick­et team? Be­cause she was al­ways run­ning away from the ball (laugh­ing loud­ly).

How would you de­scribe your­self in three words?

Strong, bub­bly, de­ter­mined.

Who were the peo­ple who have in­flu­enced you the most out­side of your im­me­di­ate fam­i­ly, in your ca­reer and in life in gen­er­al, and how did they?

I would def­i­nite­ly have to say my teach­ers and friends. They have al­ways giv­en me the en­cour­age­ment and sup­port I need­ed through­out my school life and pri­vate life.

Tell us about your in­spi­ra­tion to do the type of work you do. What would you say and what ad­vice would you give to any­one con­tem­plat­ing a vo­ca­tion such as yours?

It's a field that is quite chal­leng­ing but one in which you are able to learn some­thing new every day. It could be very time-con­sum­ing but with a great pas­sion for it, it can al­so be very en­joy­able. You got­ta make it fun!

Who was your hero or "idol" grow­ing up (fic­tion­al or re­al or both) and why? And who do you ad­mire most to­day?

The per­son whom I ad­mire most to­day is my moth­er. She pos­sess­es enor­mous strength and com­pas­sion and is a won­der­ful ex­am­ple to all women, es­pe­cial­ly moth­ers. My moth­er is my great­est bless­ing, I be­lieve she has done much more for me than I could have done for my­self with two arms.

At what schools/in­sti­tu­tions did you re­ceive your ed­u­ca­tion?

I at­tend­ed the Princess Eliz­a­beth Cen­tre, Twin­kle Twin­kle Lit­tle Star Nurs­ery School, Fe­lic­i­ty Hin­du School, St Au­gus­tine Girls' High School, UWI, St Au­gus­tine and Cave hill Cam­pus, Bar­ba­dos and Hugh Wood­ing Law School, St Au­gus­tine.

What is your favourite meal/ dish/food...and drink?

I love Chi­nese food and un­for­tu­nate­ly I think I'm ad­dict­ed to Co­ca Co­la (big laugh).

What ad­vice would you give to the young peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go?

De­spite the nu­mer­ous chal­lenges you are faced with, al­ways stay fo­cused and nev­er lose sight of your goals. If you fall, pick your­self up and try again. Choose to com­plain less and give more. Be thank­ful each day for your count­less bless­ings and al­ways give your best at what­ev­er you do. Have a clear sense of pur­pose and al­ways re­mem­ber with self-be­lief and con­fi­dence noth­ing is im­pos­si­ble.

If you could dine with any­one in his­to­ry who would it be and why? What din­ner con­ver­sa­tion would you have with that per­son?

I'd say Nick Vu­ji­cic, an Aus­tralian guy who was born with­out arms and legs. I'm quite amazed by him and would def­i­nite­ly love to learn more about his life sto­ry and how he is able to over­come his chal­lenges.

What is your great­est fear in life?

Los­ing my loved ones, es­pe­cial­ly my moth­er.

What dai­ly mot­to/cre­do do you live by and in three words, your recipe for suc­cess?

Three sim­ple words...Nev­er give up.

What was the most dif­fi­cult de­ci­sion you ever had to make?

Ohhh, that's a per­son­al one (laugh­ing hearti­ly).

What are your most prized pos­ses­sions: one tan­gi­ble, one in­tan­gi­ble?

My most prized tan­gi­ble pos­ses­sion is my fam­i­ly and my most prized in­tan­gi­ble pos­ses­sion would have to be my strength.

The one place you would like to vis­it and why?

Ohhh, I would like to vis­it as many places as I pos­si­bly can! Hope­ful­ly in the fu­ture I'd like to make trav­el­ling my new hob­by.

Your pet peeve? Your favourite form of re­lax­ation?

My favourite form of re­lax­ation is lis­ten­ing to mu­sic and singing along.

What is your favourite pas­time/in­ter­est/hob­by?

I love mu­sic, danc­ing and food...so a nice din­ner and a dance floor, with my fam­i­ly and friends is al­ways spe­cial.

Of all your ac­co­lades, prizes and awards which do you rate as ex­treme­ly spe­cial?

Ex­press In­di­vid­ual of the Year 2006 is very spe­cial, the main rea­son be­ing I was vot­ed num­ber one by the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go.

What goals and or am­bi­tions do you still have?

I would like to use my life sto­ry to in­spire oth­ers and as such I wish to be­come a mo­ti­va­tion­al speak­er and al­so write a book. I would al­so like to have a foun­da­tion some­day.

What are the things you can­not live with­out?

Face­book. Okay, no, just kid­ding (laugh­ing)...I can­not live with­out prayer, love and friend­ship.

What is the best com­pli­ment you have ever re­ceived?

Wow, there are too many to choose from...I re­ceive com­pli­ments on a dai­ly ba­sis from nu­mer­ous per­sons. I must say the sup­port of the cit­i­zens of Trinidad and To­ba­go is quite over­whelm­ing and in­spir­ing to me.

What else about Veera Bha­jan would you like our read­ers to know?

I'm a fight­er and a sur­vivor. I am very pas­sion­ate about life and I am de­ter­mined to with­stand and over­come all ob­sta­cles in my way to suc­ceed in life. Af­ter all, who needs arms when you have wings.

Oh, and by the way, I am avail­able to in­ter­view for any jobs in the cor­po­rate le­gal sec­tor...(burst­ing out with a big laugh).