Facing all her hardships head-on, Shaheen, with the support of her mother, rose from poverty and stabilized herself as a beautician and a choreographer.

Shaheen Pathan is a beautician and a choreographer based in Udaipur. Besides, she also does anchoring and Mehandi artwork.

Shaheen originally hails from a town named Delwara in the Udaipur district. She completed her initial schooling from Udaipur and then completed her remaining schooling from Delwara.

Shaheen shares that she studied till eighth grade at a school in her hometown itself. She says she would have to struggle a lot to pursue her studies. There would not be any lights at her home. Her family was financially also very poor. However, things changed a bit for her when she joined an NGO after completing eighth grade.

Shaheen says that, at the NGO, she did a beautician course and learned the nuances of makeup art among other things. Besides, she says dancing had also been her passion from childhood itself. Furthermore, she says that she happened to anchor one of the events of the NGO and there the owner of a hotel cum resort happened to see her anchor the event. The resort owner liked her voice quality and subsequently offered her a job as an anchor at her resort. Thus, Shaheen started her first job.

Talking about challenges in her life, Shaheen says that when she started her job in the hotel industry, she didn’t know anything about how the industry worked. Besides, being a girl,  people would think foul of her for working in the hotel industry. Later, when she opened her own beauty parlor, people doubted her capabilities. There were many financial challenges as well on her end. However, her parents always supported her and her hopes kept her chasing her dreams.

When asked about her sources of inspiration, Shaheen says that she gets inspired the most by her mother. Besides, Rachana Sharma, a hotelier, who spotted her anchoring talent, is also an inspiration for her.

Talking about her achievements, Shaheen says that at her workplace she was given the star of the month and the employee of the month awards, which were big achievements for her. Besides, at school and college, she had won many awards in dancing competitions.

Shaheen thinks that in life education is important but experience is more important. She says with experience only you grow in your career.

To aspiring beauticians, Shaheen advises them that the lack of resources on their end should not hinder them from pursuing their dreams. She says they can start with whatever they have and if they keep working hard then destiny will also favor them and make things fall into place for them over time.

Reviewing her COVID experience, Shaheen says that she had gone to visit Chandigarh at that time, and due to the pandemic, she got stuck there for three months. Besides, she says that the pandemic created a phobia of catching the virus among people and due to that they feared helping one another. Furthermore, she says that during the pandemic, she learned different styles of dance and also learned different beauty tricks.

In her spare time, Shaheen likes to learn different beauty tricks. Besides, she also likes to spend time with her friends to learn about contemporary things.