By Chief of Bureau C Anil Kumar

Kannur: At a juncture when dark and divisive forces are making diabolical attempts to rend the communal fabric of this ancient and glorious nation, a 22-year-old Muslim from Jammu and Kashmir is preparing to achieve his noble objective of assuming the mantle of an Indian military officer and the credit for this goes to Operation Sadbhavana.

At the tender age of 13, Ishaq Shafi reached this district from Drass when the Army sponsored education of a few Ladakhi students. In January, 2016, he was appointed Temporary Tennis Coach at the Indian Naval Academy.

Interacting with ‘Developing India Mirror’, Shafi says that he considers himself privileged to train the cadets.

"I – a youngster from one end of India – got a chance to serve the nation at the other end,” he quips. Shafi, who has already applied for the Combined Defence Services Examination, wishes to join either the Indian Military Academy or the Officers Training Academy. He is residing at the dwelling of M. Sreekumar who is employed as Tennis Coach at the I.N.A. for the past half a decade.  

When Shafi reached Kannur in 2006 he was accompanied by Tseten Angmo, Tsering Thashi and Jigmat Nurbo from Leh besides Sikander Ali from Kargil. They joined the Chinmaya Vidyalaya in Chala. Shafi was then in the seventh standard.

He went on to earn a B.Com. degree and is in the first year of an M.B.A. course under Bharathiar University through distance education. His friend Jigmat Nurbo -- another such student from Leh -- is studying at the National Institute of Technology, Kozhikode.

Nurbo and Shafi became district tennis champs in the Under-19 category thanks to guidance by Sreekumar who was also the coach at the Chinmaya school.

At the time of joining the Vidyalaya, the five minors – the youngest was 11 – were extremely shy and homesick and spoke only Hindi. Today, the youths are fluent in English and Malayalam.