By Raqib Hameed Naik, TwoCircles.net
Srinagar: In a first for Kashmir, four students from a valley-based based mentoring center, RISE made to the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology (IITs), the results for which were declared on Sunday, 12 June.
The qualifying exams for IITs, which are regarded as one of the best engineering colleges of the world, sees around 2 lakh aspirant.
Every year hardly one or two Kashmiris make it to IITs. Its for the first time since the inception of the first IIT in 1951, so many Kashmiris have made it to IITs in a single year. What makes their achievement even more significant is that they achieved the feat by preparing for the exam in Srinagar itself for past two years. The students who made it to IIT include Kaleem Khan, Malik Aneeb, Aqib Amin and Arif Reyaz Sheikh, all from RISE coaching center.
Speaking to TwoCircles.net, Kaleem Khan, a resident of Hyderpora Srinagar, said, “I am very thrilled that I got a rank good enough to secure an admission to IIT. Ever since, I started preparing for this exam, I had an aim of pursuing my engineering from IIT Bombay. I am yet to finalise on the branch I am going to pursue there.”
Kaleem Khan
Kaleem has been a studious boy throughout his schooling, and was awarded the Principal’s prize, when he left the Kashmir Valley School in class 10. Sharing his mantra of success, he said, “I started preparing for IIT right after my class 10 examinations. I joined an institute where I was taught and mentored by a team of IITians in Srinagar itself. I focused on the exam for 2 years, practised from quality books, and ensured that I was adequately prepared for the same. ”
Another qualifier, Aqib Amin is a son of a shopkeeper from Tawheedabad Bagh in Bandipora, was mentored in RISE and he will be pursuing Engineering in Physics from IIT Delhi, he told TwoCircles.net, ” I always had a keen interest in physics and mathematics which made the journey of preparing for the IIT exam more interesting than challenging. Based on my interests and the rank I have secured, I am going to pursue Engineering Physics from IIT Delhi”
Malik Aneeb is another successful student from RISE to crack IIT. He is a resident of Meemandar Shopian. His journey to success has been full of challenges and bumps along the way. He was introduced to the concept of IIT by a team of IITians who had visited his school in the summer of 2012 to conduct a few workshops.
“Based on my interaction with the IITians who visited my school I started reading up a lot about IITs and that helped me to fix IIT as an achievable goal. After class 10, I moved to Kota and studied there for two years,” he says.
Malik Aneeb
However, by the end of class 12, Aneeb started developing some health related issues and due to change in curriculum of JKBOSE examinations owing to floods in 2014, his planning and preparations for the exam took a bad hit.
“I wasn’t even able to qualify for JEE Mains, and my dream of making it to IIT seemed to be over. Then I moved back to Kashmir and decided to give one more try. I learned of an institute in the valley set up by IITians. I joined the institute primarily for practice tests and doubt clearing sessions. I will probably be pursuing Mechanical Engineering from IIT Bombay based on the rank i secured,” he said.
Arif Reyaz from remote Dawar, Gurez of Kashmir has more to cheer about because once he is done with his engineering, he will be the first ever IITian from Gurez. He has done his education from Bandipora till class 12.
“I wasn’t able to prepare for IIT in my class 11 & 12 as adequate guidance for the same wasn’t available for the same in Bandipora. After class 12, I moved to Srinagar, and started preparing for the IIT exam. What helped me was that I had attended a few sessions conducted by IITians in my school, NM Boys Higher Secondary, so I knew whom to approach once I moved to Srinagar. I am yet to decide on my branch choice, but I have a slight inclination towards pursuing Aerospace Engineering from IIT Kharagpur,” he told TwoCircles.net.
What connects these four students is that they are all students of RISE, where they were mentored and taught by a team of dedicated IITians, Mubeen Masudi from IIT Bombay, Imbesat Ahmad from IIT Kharagpur, Salman Shahid from IIT Kharagpur and Saifi Karim from DTU, New Delhi.
Mubeen Masudi, an IIT Bombay alumnus himself, founder of RISE, is exhilarated by the news and sees this as a first step towards increasing the number of Kashmiri students studying across IITs. He said, “This is very encouraging for our students who aspire to be at IIT. This result gives them a belief that if they work hard, just like these 4 students did, they deserve as much success as anyone else.”
Related:
RISE and shine: opportunity for Kashmiri students to be IITian/NITian
A mentoring centre started by three IITians delivering results in conflict-torn Kashmir