SRINAGAR: In Kashmir, anything achieved in life is attributed to destiny. Following a routine, dedication and hard work are the secondary reasons. But Hazaifa Naseer, a 19-year-old from Nowshera area of downtown, has proven otherwise. He says that a clear mind, dedication, and hard work have been the means for achieving his goals in life.

A self-taught boy until his 10th class, Huzaifa has qualified the tough IIT exams, and now is preparing to study at a leading IIT institute in India. For a year, he was just confined to his room, studying 15 hours a day, and receiving guidance from teachers on how to execute the strategy.

“It was clear in my mind that I have to be at IIT. My inner voice always said that it was not a big deal. And so it happened,” he told Kashmir Reader.

His father works as a technician at SKIMS, his mother is a house maker, and he has a sibling in Class 10. His grandfather was a teacher. It was through conversations with friends and his teacher, Rufeen, that he discovered that IIT was for him. Rufeen was later instrumental in guiding him and preparing him for the exam.

Rufeen is himself quite young, in his late twenties. He would teach students of classes 11 and 12 when he was in first year of his engineering course. Many of his students qualified competitive exams of engineering in the very first year of his teaching career. While Rufeen was dividing his time between teaching students at his tuition center and studying at his college, he became the topper in the faculty of engineering at his college. This won him the gold medal. Later, he cracked Kashmir University’s exam and did his MSc in Physics. Today he runs the coaching institute PULSE where hundreds of students train for exams.

Huzaifa is the second of his students who has qualified the IIT exam. Huzaifa says he has followed his teacher. When in his first attempt at IIT he did not qualify, he chose not to take up an engineering seat at NIT, an institute much sought after by students.

Instead, Huzaifa constructed a manual for self-discipline. He did get distracted and bored, but he would listen to music to calm his mind. Now, he aims to be a computer engineer.

Junaid Nabi Bazaz