Srinagar, May 15 -- The village of Pingalgam in south Kashmir doesn't often make news. It's the kind of place where time feels slow, schools are modest, and young people often carry more doubt than direction. But every now and then, someone quietly rewrites that script.

Asif Majeed Bhat grew up here, in a setting far removed from the polished classrooms and promising resumes that usually shape success stories.

As a boy, he struggled to focus in school. Teachers saw him as just another distracted student, someone unlikely to go far. But something inside him resisted that label, even if he couldn't articulate it then.

Over the years, that resistance turned into a steady determination. Asif didn't just pass through the education system, h...