I like to keep some sort of imperfection in my videos: Masuda Khan

Her art page on Facebook, 'Joltorongo: masu.ake's art journal wooop' has 1,12,273 followers. She has recently won The Global Undergraduate Award for a paper titled 'CDA on the Rohingya Crisis – Suu Kyi vs. Yunus'. Her charming personality also led her to the top 10 of Miss Universe Bangladesh 2021. 

She is Masuda Khan, more popularly known as MasuAke. Undoubtedly for today's youth, Masuda has been an inspiration for many reasons. But before everything, her weirdly entertaining short art clips made her internet famous.

Masuda was born in Italy, changed schools 13 times, walked barefoot on the ramp and is more interested in finishing her bachelor's degree than most would think. 

The Business Standard team looked a little deeper into the person capable of being so diverse and successful. 
"The highlights of my early childhood are sunny picnics, cycling near the Italian Alps and learning how to tie shoelaces a day before Christmas. If you were to ask my favourite childhood memory, it is when I went on a road trip halfway across Italy to go see my father on New Year's. I fell asleep in the backseat thinking I was going to the next town, but woke up to the embrace of my father," Masuda said while reminiscing about her childhood days.

Photo: Saif Rahman

Masuda's transition to Bangladesh was stark but smooth. She did not have a hard time catching up with the Bangladeshi lifestyle. 

From the very beginning, she was prepared for anything new and strange her path may cross with.

"I landed in Dhaka on a sunny afternoon in July 2006. I was eight years old. I remember getting out of the airport and thinking how strange it is that drivers sit on the right-side of the car! And how do these 'biscuit-crumb' busses work at all? And, did someone spit out of the window? These were the initial observations I had of my motherland."

Masuda enjoys exploring the world outside of her academics, too; beauty pageants being one of them. She does not believe that someone's worth should be decided on the basis of their beauty. So, she decided to explore. And she was not proven wrong.

Masuda is best known for her art page on Facebook. It is what made her popular.

"I do things randomly. Some days I plan and some days I don't. I like to keep some sort of imperfection in my videos because I believe that everything doesn't always have to be perfect," she said, adding, "If there's some background noise of a 'shobji-wala', or of neighbours quarrelling, I'll keep it in my videos. If my little cousin suddenly comes in front of the camera, I let them be here. Things don't always have to be perfect," she told the correspondent.

It has not always been easy for her, though. She has had to make do without institutional education during her A' Level days and had to be self-taught.

Speaking more about her educational struggles, Masuda said, "I have always been encouraged to study from a personal point of interest. So, I chose unconventional subjects for my A' Levels. There weren't any teachers for those courses in the country so I had to teach myself, but I was having a hard time achieving my desired grades."

Continuing, she said, "I was studying day and night. Seeing me in a state of liquid sadness, my mother assured me that grades weren't everything. Something about the way she said it made me want to study harder. I picked myself up and kept trying."

During Masuda's last A' Levels seating, she was checking the admission criteria of different universities. She was saddened to see that she could not sit for Charukola's entrance exams for just one GPA point. "Then I realised that my grades were just good enough to try for BRAC University," she told the correspondent.

Masuda loves to explore herself and whenever an opportunity strikes, she rarely ever turns it down. 

"Campus Ambassador Israr Hasan sent me the registration link to Global Undergraduate Awards. I submitted two of my papers. One of the papers ended up winning both the best in Asia award under linguistics and the Highly Commended Award. The 17-year-old Masuda, who barely passed her English exams, would be proud to see her present self," she said.

While eccentric and out of the norm, Masuda does leave a few useful hints on how to live life here and there.

Masuda's favourite animal is the Hummingbird because it is colourful, has the freedom of flight and is always active, flying at full speed. She finds inspiration in it.

As a child, she had the courage to chase down and kick a paedophile. After growing up, she bloomed as a model and braved beauty pageants. 

Undoubtedly, Masuda, with her diverse and free-spirit personality, inspires us to live life fearlessly.