After Months Of Lockdown, Coaching Institutes In Kashmir Are Moving Out, With Teachers And Students news18.com

Leaving his home amid the wavering sunrays of dawn, Shahid Ahmad Bhat managed to reach Srinagar’s Tourist Reception Centre (TRC) after changing four cars. With two bags in his hands and one slinging from his shoulders, 18-year-old Bhat heaved a sigh of relief on finding dozens of his classmates at the TRC. His home in Kulgam, southern Kashmir, is around 70 kilometers from Srinagar, normally a 90-minute drive. However, it took him four hours, while requesting random people for a lift.

Bhat, who has secured over 90 percent marks in the class 12 exams, aspires to become a doctor. Son of a government school teacher and the youngest in the family with four sisters, he is enrolled at a private coaching center in Srinagar, where he was preparing for the medical exams, National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET). This will be his second attempt. But Bhat is melancholic and feels that things for him are turning bad. The coaching center he was studying in Srinagar has decided to shift to Ambala in Punjab due to the restive situation in Kashmir. “This is for the first time I will be leaving Kashmir,” Bhat while scribbling his name on his bags. “One bag is filled with clothes and another with books,” he said. “I don’t want to lose them.”