Gulam Nabi, 57, is a semi-literate scientific genius who lives in Anantnag in Kashmir. Born into a family of blacksmiths, Nabi always knew he was good with mechanical and electronic gadgets and chemicals. “I couldn’t complete my education due to poverty, and I quit school after the eighth grade,” he says. Four decades later there isn’t a machine that Nabi can’t fix.

It all started with a book he got on radios when he was 16. “I read that book seven times and I made a radio with a piece of cardboard and a few household items in a day,” he says proudly. Nabi has books worth Rs 40,000 in English, Urdu and Hindi, on his favourite subjects -- chemicals, mechanics, electronics.

Nabi started his career repairing sewing machines and stoves. Since then he has repaired everything from washing machines to biomedical waste machines, televisions and manual cameras. Once, he spent 13 sleepless days and nights repairing a manual camera even though he had never handled one before!

Egged on by his teenage friends, Nabi put together a radio in the ’70s. He then set up a broadcast station covering an area of around 200 metres in the village. “We used to broadcast the daily goings-on in the village… nothing political. Unfortunately, it caught the attention of the authorities,” he says. So Nabi stopped, but his protégée continued to broadcast. This got Nabi into more trouble and he was picked up and severely interrogated by the security forces a number of times. After seeking intervention from a local newspaper, Nabi was set free.

Stories of Nabi’s brilliance and talent are not confined to Anantnag. Over four decades, they have travelled all the way to Srinagar. A 19-year-old postgraduate student from Kashmir University says he has heard of Nabi’s prowess and can hardly believe that it is not just the fictional account of a man who set a broadcast system in place in the ’70s. He exclaims: “I can’t believe you met him. I’ve only heard of him in my childhood.”

Likewise, a local doctor from the neighbouring village who had only heard stories of Nabi from his parents when he was a child is amazed that the legendry character exists. “If he had been born in a foreign country they would have supported him and he would have been able to attain the unimaginable.”

Back at a friend’s place in Anantnag, it doesn’t take Nabi long to remember the happiest moment of his life -- one that made his father proud. “When I first made the radio work, it made my father so happy. He had that radio with him till the day he died,” Nabi says beaming. And like all men of intellect and passion, he tries to describe the unadulterated joy he experiences when he makes a gadget work: “It lasts for five minutes, but I’m the happiest then,” he says fondly, his eyes glistening with tears.

Recalling his first experiments as a teen, he says he was fascinated when he heard that acid poured on marble produces carbon dioxide. His curiosity aroused, he set out with his friends in search of marble which was hard to come by in those days. “Finally, we found a small piece after a long hunt and I carried out the experiment and the candle went out when carbon monoxide was produced,” he says gleefully. “I was very young. I used to experiment with different chemicals. Things used to explode during experiments.”

Nabi offered to make an electronic dinosaur for Kashmir University and a helicopter for the engineering college. But his proposals were turned down by officials who refused to part with the funds. He even offered to double the capacity of the power station in Ganderbal, but, again, he was refused. “That power station has since closed down. I told them I could triple the capacity for less money, but no one was interested.”

Given the way the system works, I ask Nabi if there’s hope for the children of Kashmir who are born with raw talent like him. His answer is somewhat pessimistic. He feels that in Kashmir, as far as educating children goes, “they feed manure to the petals while cutting their roots”.

Towards the end of the meeting, I ask Nabi whether he has one unfulfilled dream project left. He replies: “I have eight to 10 years of life left in me. I have high blood pressure. Hard work has melted my body. I’ve dreamt of so many things I couldn’t do. Now I don’t have any dreams. That chapter is closed.” Despite the odds, one can’t help but feel that this should not have been the last chapter in this gifted man’s life. If only he had managed to get an education.

(Dilnaz Boga is a special correspondent for Kashmir Times in Srinagar)

Infochange News & Features, February 2010