Dream: To promote brand Kashmir.

Dream: To promote brand Kashmir.

They dreamt of setting up an e-bay for brand Kashmir. And it may well have remained in the realm of fantasy if Kashif Khan, 24, and Rayees Rasool, 25, had given up. Having developed a plan to e-manage a range of community services in Kashmir, their first project was to train students at the Islamic University of Science and Technology in integrated chip design. When they went looking for trainers in big cities, nobody wanted to come to the valley of uncertainty. That didn't stop Khan from undergoing a 15-day course, coming back and training nearly 70 students himself. If people wouldn't come to Kashmir, they would take Kashmir to the world. As they sit now in a warm Srinagar café on a chilly winter day, Khan and Rasool, trained as engineers in Jammu and Pune, bubble with enthusiasm.

While Khan has founded his own company, Resolute Consultancy Services, Rasool has started iGear Solutions. Their confidence stems from their own professional competence. "We're trying to create opportunities not just for ourselves but for others. We should not be judged by a political yardstick," says Khan. The government for them is not a provider of employment but a potential customer. And though they tried to partner with the state in its ambitious e-governance project with no success, they have taken on the J&K Bank's Khidmat centre, connecting a 1,000 village branches. Their Kashmiri identity may be a baggage but they are learning to travel light.