The youngest PhD holder in hotel management hails from Jammu and Kashmir and is passing on his expertise and knowledge at IHM (Institute of Hotel Management) Srinagar to the next generation.
Mohamad Shafiq-ur-Rehman is the youngest (PhD) degree holder in hotel management at IHM. For the last few years, the young faces of the valley are showing good performance in hotel management courses including food processing, housekeeping, chef, food production and overall hospitality courses aimed to make their future. These talented and energetic youths of the valley have time and again shown their calibre in different streams and Shafiq-ur-Rehman is one of them. Shafiq belongs to the Kulgam district of south Kashmir and has proven his mettle in hotel management by becoming the youngest PhD degree holder in the Kashmir valley.
Shafiq who hails from Kulgam village and belongs to a middle-class family got his initial education from the local higher secondary of his district.
After completing his BSc from Kurukshetra in 2016 Shafiq still felt unsatisfied and wanting more he left for Jaipur with the aim to complete his Masters in food production and hospitality.
Kashmir is a tourist destination and every year a large number of tourists from across the world throng the valley and they always prefer to get something different apart from the traditional cuisine of the valley including the centuries-old Wazwan.
His qualifying for the entrance test of engineering and joining Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University is a testimony to his brilliance in academics, which he left after some time.
Shafiq always had a knack for teaching which could be a result of his father being a principal in technical education. His father always wanted his son to become a teacher and carry his legacy forward.
This was the driving reason behind his decision to get admission in PhD in food production and hospitality to make his dream of being a teacher come true.
Presently Shafiq is working as faculty at IHM Srinagar which is one of the prominent institutes of the country where many students pursue courses including food production and hospitality.
However, all the recognition and appreciation that he has garnered did not come easy to him. He was left grasping at straws when he spent a number of months in the Taj hotel where he was cleaning utensils and vegetables with the aim of getting every kind of experience in the hotel management line. These turbulent times are what motivated him to share his experience with the youth so that they don’t face the same hardships.
