Imbisat Makhdoomi

Imbisat (standing at left behind the group) with his friends in Kota, Rajasthan.
Imbisat (standing at left behind the group) with his friends in Kota, Rajasthan.

I am one of those students who left his motherland Kashmir for a better future. Kashmir, a poets heaven or paradise needs no introduction as everything here is filled with mystic romance. Its environs have soothed great kings while its breathtaking beauty has mesmerized travellers for ages. Yet Kashmiri students flock towards rugged and dry plains of Kota, the third-largest city in Rajasthan. Kota is famous for its coaching centres. One can find coaching centres of all sizes and standards and streams in Kota. Be it IAS, Medicine, Engineering, IIT, you will find a coaching centre for it in Kota. It is the hub of quality education.

Despite harsh climate Kashmiri students like me come to Kota with their eyes set on the future. I hardly manage to live in 54-degree Celcius,  the temperature at which ACs, coolers and other cooling gadgets seem to be useless. But there is no other way out.

For Kashmiri students, who aspire to become something in life, there is no other way but to leave his paradise.

I feel that the education system back home lacks the ability to nourish a student for competitive exams. Saying this, I don’t mean that there is no talent in Kashmir, in fact, there is a hell lot of.

One feels sad to know that there are no coaching institutes in Kashmir, which can prepare students for competitive exams like IIT, NEET, AFMC, BITSAT, SAT, etc.

Thus students aspiring for higher goals in life have no option left other than setting off for cities like Kota. Hundreds of students who are passionate about their careers are thus forced to spend huge money at places like Kota. We are in fact helping them get richer.

On average a student spends at least 2 lakh per year in Kota.

Simply imagine how much money hundreds of students who come to Kota each year spend. This money could have helped Kashmir’s economy had we quality coaching centres back home. It would have helped to raise the education standard in Kashmir.

Living in Kota, particularly as Kashmiri is somewhat typical.

Though there are hundreds of Kashmiri students in Kota still we can`t live like one society as other state students live.

As earlier mentioned that Kota is the hub of IIT and Medical coaching, so to some extent its apolitical, however, the people of Kota have same prejudice against Kashmiris as is seen in rest of India.

Not only in Kota, anywhere in India when you proclaim as Kashmiri, it means you are about to suffer.

It feels like people right there have some reserved feelings and attitude for us.

At Kota railway station, when authorities came to know that one of my friends, Himayu, was a Kashmiri, his bag was checked at least four times.

One day me and one of my friends were late for our class. Our teacher stopped my friend, brought him to stage and asked, ‘’You live in Jammu. Tum Jammu walle zyada sundar  hote ho, kyu?’’

Teacher despite knowing that he’s from Kashmir, deliberately told him so.

My friend, out of rage told him ‘’Sir, I am from Kashmir, not Jammu’’.The teacher replied, ‘’fir toh darna padega tere se’

Then almost whole class echoed with cries, making fun of my friend, ’’Pakistan baij do issse Sir.”

Such incidents, though not so serious, make reinforce your inhibitions of living outside Kashmir. Every day we are made to feel different. While non-Kashmiri students can avail a sim card by producing their coaching cards, Kashmiris have to show their voter cards.

The mentality of people back there ought to be overhauled. They see us as Pakistanis and believe that we hate them, which is not the case. Most of my close friends are from outside Kashmir.

One of my non-Kashmiri friends once asked me, ‘’Hey man, we had been good friends, but still you didn’t show me that.’’ I wondered about THAT and replied, ‘’What is that?”

He said, ‘’Kashmiris carry that AK 47.”

I was astonished and had to tell him the reality. They thought that as the sword is for a Sikh , AK 47 is for Kashmiris. It was not his fault. He has been fed such things by Indian media or Bollywood.

Being a student I loved to represent true Kashmir and its culture.  Kashmiris can be identified easily because of our cool appearance. Kashmiri boys and girls are seen as smartest among all other students. Being there, I have got many reasons to love my Kashmir.

An engineering aspirant, Imbisat Makhdoomi is studying in 12th standard. 

10 COMMENTS

  1. Well,it is better to concentrate on your goal and strive hard for it .Ignore these aberrations.Not all indians are like that .There may be few.About things not being in kashmir ,well that place has gone through a difficult period .It is people like you who will have to make that place alive again…(a kashmiri brother ..Aijaz)

  2. We are not Indians that is what they thought and i
    support their ideology ,remembering the cruelties with which they dealt with us.I hate India and you all know why I should not.May God bless you Imbi and give you courage to deal with these criminals and real terriosts-bloody bullshit Indian dogs.

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