INSPIRATIONAL STORY: This school dropout from Kashmir is now an IT icon in the UK

Srinagar: A young Kashmiri boy Sheikh Asif, from Srinagar's Batamaloo area, who was forced to drop out of school in the eighth standard due to unfavorable economic conditions owns a leading UK based Information Technology (IT) company and is giving online classes in web designing and digital marketing, it was reported on Friday.

He has also authored three books on various topics in his favorite field.

To see more and more educated youth of Jammu and Kashmir joining IT sector is Sheikh Asif’s long cherished dream and he is making all out efforts in a bid to make that dream come true.

Sheikh Asif too had to go through many difficulties in his journey from being school dropout to become an international IT icon.

Refreshing his memories of his difficult but successful journey, he told UNI that his family circumstances forced him to say goodbye to education in the eighth standard. “I reached this stage after crossing several hurdles during the tough period of my life”, Sheikh Asif said.

"My family opposed my decision to drop out of school in the eighth standard, but the falling health of my father forced me to bid adieu to schooling in 2008," he said.

He said, “In 2009 my father some how managed to buy a computer for me and I started learning the basics about it as I was very interested in it and I wanted to build my career in it”

Sheikh Asif said “that in those days there was a trend of “Tally” and I went to an institute to learn it but I was disappointed when I was told that this work is beyond your comprehension due to my less education”.

He said, “I started working as a graphic designer in a tour and travel agency where I had a monthly salary of Rs 1500 which helped me make ends meet to some extent. However, during this time I learned other aspects of computer like 'Excel' etc”.

Sheikh Asif said "After leaving the tour and travels work, I got a job at Tata Sky, where I had the opportunity to glaze my skills by using my efforts in many areas of IT," he said.

He said “that in 2014, I decided to start my own business, but that year's catastrophic floods shattered my dreams and as a result I once again had to work in someone else's office”.

He said, "But this time luck favored me, in the office where I got the job became the reason for me to move out of Kashmir and I went to Delhi in 2016 and then I landed in London, the capital of the United Kingdom”.

The young man said that at first I had to struggle a lot in London too.

He said, “I was a little disappointed because of the lack of work in London. Fortunately I met a fellow countryman who took me in and I narrated the whole story during the conversation”.

He said, "The Kashmiri guy I met was a resident of Baramulla district of North Kashmir and had been living in London for a long time where he also had a restaurant." Asif said, "He gave me the place and food to live on and helped me a lot to start my own work."

He said: "I started my own Thomas InfoTech journey in London. Many people came to me to do graphic designing work and one of them had to create a website."

He said, "When I created a website for a person, he was very happy and paid me millions of rupees."

Sheikh Asif said that gradually I started designing my own website with a former Google employee Hamza Saleem.

He said, "We named this setup after a famous river in London called “Thomas Info Tech” but Hamza Saleem had to move to Manchester in the year 2018 for his assignments and I returned to my native place Kashmir."

"I am giving online classes to about 900 students in the fields of online web designing and digital marketing.

Only 40 of them are from Jammu and Kashmir including 35 girls," he said.

He said that he has also written three books on various topics in the IT field.

Sheikh Asif says that it is his dream to connect more and more youth of Jammu and Kashmir with the IT sector.

He said that just as our youth become IAS officers, doctors, engineers by participating in competitive examinations, they should also try their luck in the IT sector.

He believes that there is a lot of scope in this field and Kashmiri youth can join it and showcase their talent and intelligence at the international level. (UNI)