Srinagar, May 10: A 21-year-old girl from Srinagar, who is aspiring to become a lawyer, has made her name as a Mehandi artist and at times provides free of cost services to the people, who cannot afford to pay hefty sums, aiming to assist the poor in need.
Sheema Lateef, who hails from Soiteng locality of Nowgam in the outskirts of Srinagar city, is pursuing her Bachelor’s degree in Law from Vitasta School of Law and Humanities in Srinagar and at the same time she is also pursuing her hobby of being one of youngest and certified Mehandi artist in the Kashmir Valley.
Originally hailing from Khayam locality of Srinagar, Sheema wants to work for the welfare of the people both as a lawyer and a Mehandi artist.
“Being a lawyer and a Mehandi artist, I want to work for the welfare of the people. Nowadays artists, be it makeup artists or Mehandi artists, charge hefty amounts, which sometimes people cannot afford. So keeping that in mind, I have kept a cap at Rs 2500 for every person and for those who cannot afford even this amount, I offer the services free of cost,” Sheema said.
Being a self-taught article, Covid-19 lockdown helped her hone her skills in this art and she would offer services to the people during lockdown at her home.
She said that she had created an Instagram page and she would get bookings through this and people would come to her home.
“During lockdown people would come to my home. Since I knew this art from the beginning, it was not difficult for me to learn more about it. But I had to fight a lot of stereotypes as people would sometimes look down upon artists like us as people think we belong to lower class families,” she said.
She said that a lot of people gave up on their professions of being Mehandi or makeup artists as people would often mistreat them, forcing them to give up.
“But I overcame such stereotypes and moved on with my hobby as well as my profession. I am pursuing law and I am currently doing an internship at District court Srinagar as I am in 5th semester of my course. At the same time I am pursuing my hobby of being one of the youngest Mehandi artists in the Kashmir Valley” she said.
Though, field of law was not Sheema’s choice, she ended in this profession after opting out of Robotics course at IIT Delhi, where she had secured 2nd position in the entire Kashmir Valley.
She said that even though this course was a fully-funded scholarship by the government, she still ended up being an aspiring lawyer as this was written in her destiny.
“Being a lawyer was by chance and not by choice as I had not thought about this profession, but destiny had something else in store for me. But while pursuing law I learnt about working for the welfare of the people and this is what motivated me to take up the hobby of being a Mehandi artist. As through this I also want to work for the welfare of the people,” she said.
She said that she only charges Rs 2500 to all the brides, who come to her and those who cannot afford it. She provides her services free of cost. “I never charge any bride more than Rs 3000 and never ask money from those who couldn’t afford it,” she said.
“Even though I provided my services free of cost to a lot of people, I still earned over 2 lakh last season and I am very satisfied with what I am doing,” she said.
Sheema, who belongs to a well-off family and is the eldest among her siblings, wants to be independent and earn a name for herself.
She said that her father is a businessman and she is often told to learn to handle the business, however, she wants to be an independent girl and wants to earn a name for herself. “May be at some point I would take up my father’s business, but first I want to earn something for myself, I want to be independent,” Sheema said.
She said that she would like to request youngsters not to indulge in any bad activity instead try to explore your skills and talent and help yourselves become independent and earn a name for themselves.
“People would try to discourage you and would try to look down upon you when you are in a field like Mehandi art and Makeup art, but you should never mind that and you should move on to achieve your goal, which would be the best answer to your critics,” she said.
Like many other professionals, Sheema also has created an Instagram page by the user name–artistica__119 (Mehandi artistica), to have maximum outreach and to showcase her skills—(KNO)
