KARACHI: While many children wait for an owl-delivered letter from the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry the second they turn 11, a 12-year-old girl from India-held Kashmir’s Doda district got something even better — a tweet from J.K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series.

On April 19, Kulsum Banoo Batt from the Haji Public School wrote an essay and mentioned her favourite author — Ms Rowling. Last week, her teacher, Priya, tweeted a photograph of the essay in which the preteen wrote: “I am not inspired by J.K. Rowling only because she writes well but also because she has faced many difficulties but didn’t give up.”

The seventh grader added: “May Allah bless J.K. Rowling and give her a long life so that when I grow up I get to meet her.”

Author responds to schoolgirl’s essay

In another essay she wrote: “My favourite book is the Harry Potter series. I like this book because it’s written in such a beautiful way, I can’t even describe it.”

The director of the school, Sabbah Haji, while re-tweeting the teacher’s tweet, tagged Ms Rowling and extended to her an invitation to visit Doda and meet Kulsum.

She said that Kulsum was “a first generation English learner from the Himalayas [who] would like to meet you someday. So come visit us at #HajiPublicSchool”.

Ms Rowling replied to the director’s tweet, asking for Kulsum’s full name so that she could send her something.

In 2016, Ms Rowling gifted a seven-year-old girl in Syria signed copies of all six Harry Potter books.

Ms Sabbah re-tweeted Ms Rowling’s message with an excited comment: “Shoutout to the very gracious J.K. Rowling. This tweet framed for ever in our school hallway.”

Kulsum’s teacher later tweeted a video of her reaction. Dressed in a checkered uniform, she sat on her desk smiling ear to ear.

Talking to Dawn via Twitter, Kulsum’s teacher Priya said the direct messages from the author were top secret. “I tweet screenshots of students’ essays quite frequently,” she said.

“Her previous essay where she had to describe herself to someone who’d never met her also mentioned Ms Rowling. She’s a big fan. It’s all she talks about. The other day in class she asked me what ‘blimey’ meant, ‘it is not in the dictionary ma’am’,” she said.

She added that while Kulsum was excited when she heard what had happened but “I don’t think she completely understands how Twitter works or how many people read what she wrote”.

Kulsum, her teacher explained, was currently reading the fifth book of the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

The Haji Public School, where Kulsum and her brother study, is a privately run non-profit school in Breswana village.

It is located at an altitude of over 7,500ft and is accessible after a seven-kilometre trek, either on foot or horseback.

Published in Dawn, May 2nd, 2018