Arfa Karim Randhawa was an IT genius. She created a prominent place for herself in the IT World at the age of nine when was declared the youngest Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) by the Microsoft Corporation, USA. Arfa was born to a family in the village Chak No. 4JB, Ram Dewali in Faisalabad, Punjab, in February,1995.

All children have dreams about one day doing something extraordinary, but as we grow older, what we call the realities of life slowly start setting in and at some unknown point in our lives, we become afraid to dream big. That’s one thing Arfa never did. She always knew if you don’t dream big, then what is the point of dreaming? At the age of 9, Arfa said that she would like to go to Harvard University or MIT, and then either work for Microsoft in its developer division, or become a satellite engineer.

She was a brilliant student and a genius with computers. After stunning the entire world by becoming an MCP at such a young age –the youngest in the world until 2008—Bill Gates, the chairman of Microsoft Corporation, USA, extended Arfa an invitation to visit Microsoft’s Headquarters in Redmond, Washington, USA. Undoubtedly, her visit to Microsoft’s Headquarters was a matter of immense pride and honor, not only for herself, but for the entire Pakistani nation. This was a great achievement, but even greater an achievement was doing so much at such a very young age.

Arfa received numerous awards and honors during her very short but extremely illustrious life. On August 2^nd, 2005, she was awarded the Fatima Jinnah Gold Medal in the field of Science and Technology. This award was conferred upon her by Prime Minister of Pakistan himself on the occasion of the 113th birthday of Fatima Jinnah in On 2 August 2005. She also received the Salaam Pakistan Youth Award again in August 2005 by the President of Pakistan; she is the youngest recipient of this award. In recognition of her achievement, Arfa was made brand ambassador for Pakistan Telecommunication Company’s 3G Wireless Broadband service named EVO in January 2010.

On 22 December 2011, Arfa was admitted to Lahore’s CMH hospital after suffering cardiac arrest. After some days, doctors said there is no hope for her survival, and that her life support could be switched off ‘at any time’.Aarifa’s father, Amjad Karim Randhawa told that she had suffered an epileptic attack, which caused severe brain and heart damage. Unfortunately, the little genius won’t be able to fulfill her dream, for Arfa Karim, Pakistan’s pride, died at the tender age of 16 sending her soul to heaven. Arfa karim may be gone, but never forgotten. May god rest her soul.

This post was brought to you by one of Allshore’s .NET developers, Kashif I.