Born and brought up in Kashmir, Saim is second from his family to join the Young India Fellowship YIF) after his cousin (Salik), who he thinks played a major role for him to consider joining YIF. Studying commerce had become a monotonous circle of boredom and he really wanted to move beyond it and explore the courses offered by a Liberal Arts education, in which he has a genuine interest.
He loves Urdu poetry and can’t decide whether it is Jaun Elia or Faiz Ahmed Faiz whom he relates to more – a question he thinks he may never find an answer. His reading makes up in variety what it lacks in volume. He wants to explore the existential literature and dig deep into the questions of why do we exist, what meaning does our existence have? Or is the question of meaning in life irrelevant. He thinks YIF will help him in discovering some means to get to those answers.
On his usual days you will find Saim listening to music of Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan but when the going gets tough for him, he turns to Mehdi Hassan for solace. He biasedly believes in the fact that Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan was the last Prophet of Qawali or perhaps the only prophet. He believes that movies have had a significant impact on him and still remembers the heartbreak of watching the end of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. He is admirably comfortable saying “I don’t know’’.
