Bihari IITians help Kashmiris 'Rise'

Patna: Many from Bihar are not only excelling in their respective fields all over the country but also helping others in achieving difficult goals in life despite their state getting a bad press because of the Intermediate exam toppers’ scam recently.
Three IIT and one Delhi Technological University (DTU) grads of Bihar, along with another IITian from Kashmir, left corporate jobs to mentor the students of Jammu & Kashmir for the best technology institutes (IITs, NITs) in the country through ‘Rise’, an institute they are running in Srinagar.
Mobeen Masudi, who graduated from IIT Bombay in 2011 is a native of Kashmir while Imbesat Ahmad, an IIT Kharagpur grad is an alumnus of Loyala High School, Patna. Salman Shahid of Darbhanga is also from IIT Kharagpur while Saifi Karim from Delhi Technological University (DTU) had his schooling at Muzaffarpur and Md Neyaz Ahmad graduated from IIT Delhi in 2015 after his schooling from Al-Hira Public School, Patna.
Of the five, Imbesat, Neyaz and Saifi were the students of former Bihar DGP Abhyanand’s Rahmani Super 30. “We have been motivated by Abhyanand sir and this is the best way we could pay back to the society,” Imbesat told TOI over phone from Srinagar.
“Four of our students made it to the IIT this year and 35 others to various NITs. We look forward to much better result next year. We have not charged any fee from 18 of the students. Rest were charged Rs20,000 annual fee, which also included the study material,” Imbesat said.
When asked how they manage with so little an amount, he said, “Money is not everything. We all left corporate jobs with the aim to help students. But that doesn’t mean we do not earn. We develop apps that help us earn.”
These young Biharis also plan to start something similar in their home state. “There are many institutes in Patna, but we have decided to set up ‘Rise’ in the interiors of Bihar so that students do not need to leave their homes. They can even download our app which is available for free of cost,” Imbesat said.
Recalling his journey to ‘Rise’, Imbesat said, “When I came to Kashmir in 2012 as a part of the education programme, I met Mobeen who was running an institute. I decided to join him. Later, we pulled more friends and, finally, ‘Rise’ was formed for the students, especially those from the valley who had no idea about the IITs.”
Earlier Mobeen was alone and others used to come during their vacation to teach the students. It was in 2015 that five of them finally formed a group on the line of Super 30, conducted a talent search test and selected 60 students, a few from the villages close to the India-Pakistan border.
However, for these young mentors, running an institute in the valley is not an easy task. After the formation of ‘Rise’, their institute was washed away in the September 2014 floods. Again, frequent bandhs and curfews also created hurdles. But they carved their way out. “We have Rise edu-tablet through which we give regular assignments to our students. In fact, our app, designed by Neyaz, requires minimum internet connectivity and helps students continue their studies even if they are at home,” said Imbesat.