A Race Against Fate: How 14-year-old Khushboo Gulzar turned a 400-metre track into a lifetime victory

Ganderbal, Nov 23: At the Government College of Physical Education (GCOPE) athletic track at Gadoora in Ganderbal, a hush fell over the crowd as a young girl with an uneven stride stepped onto the lane. She was not on the competitors’ list, and she carried no medal hopes, but she carried something far greater. The courage of a child who had fought her way back from the edge of death. As fourteen-year-old Khushboo Gulzar began her solitary run, hundreds watched with moist eyes, witnessing a moment that felt less like a race and more like a rebirth.

But to understand how she reached that track, you must first know what her father lived through.

“She fell from 12 feet… the doctor said she won’t survive.”

Ghulam Mohammad Najar, Father

When asked to describe his daughter’s journey, Ghulam Mohammad Najar closes his eyes, as if forced to relive a wound he never wanted to reopen.

“She was just 17 months old,” he begins softly. “She wasn’t born disabled. She fell from a window, twelve feet down. Her head hit the ground. The neighbours rushed her to the hospital. The doctor told me, ‘There is no chance. She won’t survive.’”

He pauses. “But I told him, if there is even one option, don’t waste it. I stayed in the surgical ICU for a month. Every day the doctors said there was no improvement. But every day, I told them, try again.”

A neurosurgeon fought for the child’s life. A family from outside Kashmir, whose own son had suffered similar trauma, supported them. The father remembers watching another child being airlifted with a bill of lakhs, and he remembers thinking, 'Will my daughter even make it till morning?'

Then came the first miracle. “After two days on new medication, she moved her hand,” he says, the memory still fresh enough to shake him. “I cried like a child. My girl came back from the dead.” But life had changed forever.

Khushboo would undergo six major surgeries, skull, neck, legs, along with months in hospital beds, braces, masks and infections. The left side of her body remained weak. Childhood for her would be nothing like childhood for others. Yet even then, she dreamed.

“When she was in 2nd or 3rd standard,” her father says with pride, “she used to tell me, ‘Papa, I will become an IAS officer.”

The Day the Track Turned Silent

On November 21, 2025 as whistles blew across the J&K-Level Athletic Meet, something stirred inside Khushboo. She had come to watch her schoolmates. She had no reason to be on the track, other than the fire inside her.

“I saw everyone running… and I thought, I can do this too,” she recalls in her small but determined voice. Without hesitation, she stepped onto the lane. Without an opponent, without a timer, without instructions.

And then she ran. Khushboo crossed the line alone but victorious. Not over others, but over fate itself.

“Yesterday my courage increased four times.” When her father first heard, he didn’t believe it. “She came home with Rs 500,” he laughs. “My wife said she won some competition. I said, What competition? How is it possible? Then I saw the video. My hands were shaking. Tears came. Yesterday… my courage increased not twice, but four times.” For a man who once spent nights staring at lifeless monitors in an ICU, watching his daughter run felt like watching God rewrite their destiny.

Khushboo Speaks: “I worked hard… my school was very happy.”

When asked about the race, her tone brightens instantly. “I worked hard, and my school was very happy,” she says. “Mama royi… Papa bahut khush hue.” Her ambitions? Boundless. Will she run again? “Yes. I will return.”

Her favourite cricketer? “Virat Kohli. ” What would she say if she met him? “I will ask him to play cricket with me.”

Her dreams remain simple but powerful. Dreams are not defined by disability but by possibility.

A Family’s Pride, A Community’s Lesson

Najjar has two sons and one daughter. But on the day she ran, he says, “My daughter became my strength. She taught me courage.” His message to parents of children with disabilities is clear. “Nothing is impossible to a willing mind. Have patience. Stand with them. They can do anything.”

More Than a Race

Khushboo’s 400-metre run wasn’t a medal event. She didn’t just complete a lap. She completed a circle—from near death to unstoppable life.

And as she crossed the finish line, she proved something far bigger.

Disability can limit the body but never the will.