This is out of ordinary. A Hindu girl teaching Quran to Muslims.18-year-old Pooja Kushwaha, who is herself a normal class XII student by the day, turns into teacher at dusk giving away lessons to 35 Muslim kids in the area lessons in Quran. That too Muslims come to a Temple and learn Quran lessons from the HIndu girl who is a student.
In western UP, an open-air classroom held every evening in a temple premises in Agra’s Sanjay Nagar colony offers hope and also a rare insight into the state’s composite culture.
With her impeccable accent tiding over difficult Arabic phonology involving a variety of syllables and emphatic consonants, the young girl looks every inch of the teacher the parents of these kids always wanted.
Reshma Begum, mother of 5-year-old Alisha, one of Pooja’s students, said, “It is a marvel to see her achieve this rare distinction at so young age. I am very pleased to have her as my kid’s teacher. Her religion is the last thing on my mind or any other parents’ that I know.”
“Many years ago, there was another woman of mixed faith in our locality. Born to a Muslim father and Hindu mother, Sangeeta Begum used to hold Quran classes for the kids. I got interested in the holy book and started attending her classes. I made steady progress and was ahead of all others in her class soon,” Pooja told .
Due to some personal problem, Sangeeta Begum had to discontinue her classes and she requested Pooja to keep alive this legacy.
