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    "result": {"pageContext":{"language":"en","pathURL":"mamoni-khatun","isDefaultLanguage":true,"storyData":{"Name":"Mamoni Khatun","Alt_Photos":null,"Alt_Text_Photo1":"Mamoni Khatun (13) stands on a deep cobalt-blue, disc-shaped sensory mat with a surface of rubber spikes. She is grinning and has raised both her hands so that her body forms a Y shape. She has straight, shoulder-length hair with a centre parting. She wears a pale sky blue cotton pinafore over a dark sky blue T-shirt with only its short sleeves peeping out at the shoulders. The mat rests on a beige rug and the wall behind Mamoni is beige. It has a window with a drawn white curtain printed with strawberry pink spiky flowers in clusters of three. A four-legged coffee-brown wooden stool is on the edge of the rug to the top left. There is a chocolate brown schoolbag on top of the stool. ","Alt_Text_Photo2":"Mamoni sits cross-legged on a bed, wearing a blood-red half-sleeved shirt and pale pink pyjamas dotted with small spiky crimson flowers. There is a hairclip on either side of her hair parting. Each clip has a row of four small blood-red flowers on it. There is a notebook in front of her folded at the spine so that just one white page is open. Mamoni is bent over the book and writing in it with a silver-coloured pencil. A pink pastel stationery box is to the right of the book. The wall behind the bed is off-white and it has a drawn white window-curtain printed with strawberry pink flowers.","Alt_Text_Photo3":"Mamoni, wearing a short-sleeved orange T-shirt and cream pants, sits on a swing with its chain links painted the same orange as her shirt. She is holding the chains with both hands raised to head level. Next to her there is a similar empty swing. The seat is made of a U-shaped sheet of steel. The swing set’s A-shaped struts supporting the horizontal bar are painted copper sulphate blue.","Alt_Text_Photo4":"Mamoni, wearing a sky-blue short-sleeved T-shirt and strawberry pink pants, is standing on a silver-grey rug. She is holding a piece of physiotherapy equipment which consists of two sky blue plastic semi-circular blocks each attached to a black elastic cord. She is balancing on the blocks with each foot covering each block and has pulled up the cords to waist level with both hands. To the left there is a bed. Its mattress is covered with a bedsheet in a design of sky blue and strawberry pink.","Alt_Text_Photo5":"Sitting on a bed from left to right: Mamoni’s brother Akib Hussain (18), father Jakir Hussain (48), Mamoni sitting in her father’s lap, and her mother Phool Begum (42). Akib sits with his legs folded to one side and hands folded on his lap. He has a pencil moustache and a thin beard lining his cheeks and chin. His short, thick, black, wavy hair is parted on the side. He wears black shorts and a crimson T-shirt with yellow edges at the sleeves and neck and yellow triangular panels at the shoulders. Jakir wears a smile as he sits cross-legged. He has a thin stubbly white beard and his balding head has salt-and-pepper hair on each side. He wears ash-grey pants and a full-sleeved rust-coloured shirt. Mamoni wears loose light-blue jeans and her pale blue pinafore over a dark sky blue T-shirt. She holds her right hand up against her chest with her thumb and forefinger raised and the other fingers folded as if firing a gun sideways. Phool is grinning as she sits with legs stretched out sideways to the right and hands folded on her lap. Her hair is combed back and she wears deep crimson lipstick. Her white, three-fourth-sleeved kameez is covered with white embroidery in a pattern of creepers. It has an orange rectangular panel on the chest and is dotted here and there with small orange flowers; her dupatta, of the same orange colour, is loosely wound around her neck. There is a thin gold bangle on each wrist. The bedsheet is mustard yellow and the wall behind them is greyish-white.","Alt_Text_Video":null,"Photo1_URL":"https://egsweb.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/Mamoni_Khatun/_O2A3750.jpg","Photo2_URL":"https://egsweb.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/Mamoni_Khatun/_O2A3679.jpg","Photo3_URL":"https://egsweb.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/Mamoni_Khatun/_O2A3426.jpg","Photo4_URL":"https://egsweb.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/Mamoni_Khatun/_O2A3821.jpg","Photo5_URL":"https://egsweb.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/Mamoni_Khatun/_O2A3774.jpg","Name_English":"Mamoni Khatun","Language":"en","Disability":["recUGk5FaYHOMGmxR"],"Gender":"Female","Instagram_Content":"Phool Begum and her husband Jakir Hussain (48), who works as a driver, used to live in Rampur Nalbari in lower Assam. When their daughter Mamoni Khatun (13) was born, the doctors informed the couple she had a hole in the heart which would gradually heal with age – and it proved to be true. They also indicated she would be “different” but did not specify how. The couple took her to Guwahati where she was diagnosed with DS at age four and given regular sessions of physio, occupational and speech therapy. Realising that therapy was making a marked difference to her well-being, the couple decided to move to Guwahati.\n\nMamoni has a brother, Akib Hussain (18), who is doing his B.Com. Their parents do feel sad that their daughter’s education will not match that of their son because “she has a weak brain” as Phool describes Mamoni’s intellectual disability. However, Mamoni is thriving in Shishu Sarothi, the reputed NGO dedicated to the education and rehabilitation of disabled children.  She is getting a basic education and vocational training. She loves music, painting and dancing and she is also enjoying the computer classes she has recently enrolled in.\n\nMamoni used to depend on her mother for her basic needs such as eating, bathing and wearing clothes. But now she needs absolutely no assistance. She loves meat and her mother’s home cooking; she eats no junk food. Phool says, “I hope Mamoni can survive and thrive independently on her own even though one day her parents won’t be there. She is able to tell right from wrong, and to decide what she wants. If she is able to live a life of her own, that would be the biggest source of strength for us.” \n","Quote":"“I love music, dance and painting. I have also started enjoying my computer classes”","Status":"Published","Video":null,"Website_Content":"When Zubeen Garg, the wildly popular singer and heartthrob of Assam, died in September 2025, among the hundreds of thousands who mourned his death there was a 12-year-old girl living in Guwahati’s Christian Basti. Mamoni Khatun, who has Down Syndrome (DS), was a die-hard fan of “Zubeen-da”, as she called him; she would dance to his music and sing his songs, imitating his singing style. “When Zubeen-da died she was aware he was no more and was so upset,” says her mother Phool Begum (42).\n \nPhool Begum and her husband Jakir Hussain (48), who works as a driver, used to live in Rampur Nalbari in lower Assam. When Mamoni was born, in a government hospital, the doctors informed the couple she had a hole in the heart which would gradually heal with age – and it proved to be true. They also indicated she would be “different” but did not specify how. This ‘warning’ alerted the parents to Mamoni’s early signs of delayed speech and movement and they lost no time in seeking advanced medical treatment.\n \nJakir and Phool frequently made the 60 km trip to Guwahati where she was diagnosed with DS at age four and given regular sessions of physiotherapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy. “We used to carry her,” Phool recalls. “She was as light as cotton, as if there were no bones inside her.” Realising that therapy was making a marked difference to her well-being, the couple decided to move to Guwahati. An added incentive was that this city also housed the reputed NGO Shishu Sarothi dedicated to the education, training and rehabilitation of children and young adults with developmental disabilities.\n \nMamoni has a brother, Akib Hussain (18), who is doing his B.Com. Their parents do feel sad that their daughter’s education will not match that of their son because “she has a weak brain” as Phool describes Mamoni’s intellectual disability. However, Mamoni is thriving in Shishu Sarothi where she is getting a basic education and vocational training. “She needs to be constantly pushed to study,” says her mother. She shows a preference for the arts – she loves music, painting and dancing – but she is also enjoying the computer classes she has recently enrolled in. “She is better at writing than reading,” Phool says. “If she finds it difficult to speak something clearly to you she will write it out for you.”\n \nIn her early childhood the couple had got a “locomotive disability” certificate made for Mamoni but it became invalid once she was able to walk. However, they recently applied for an intellectual disability certificate after getting her IQ tested and hope to receive it soon. She used to depend on her mother for her basic needs such as eating, bathing and wearing clothes. But with time and practice, she has learnt to perform her activities of daily living with absolutely no assistance. Phool told us her daughter started menstruating last year and is taking time to get used to the process and learn how to maintain hygiene.\n \nMamoni loves meat. Eating fish is a challenge because of the bones she has to remove, and that requires patience! Mother’s home cooking is what she prefers; she eats no junk food. Phool says, “I hope Mamoni can survive and thrive independently on her own even though one day her parents won’t be there. She has enough intellectual and cognitive ability to tell right from wrong, and to decide what she wants. If she is able to live a life of her own, that would be the biggest success and source of strength for us.”\n","State_name":"Assam","Display_Order":275}}},
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