Bangalore's Famed Plane-Maker Finally Cracks Engineering in 10 Years

[vicky sen]

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  Mohd Muzakkir Sharief along with his wife Salma Ahmed Haigi at their J C Nagar house | Vinod Kumar T

Ten years after he enrolled for his dream engineering course, Mohd Muzakkir Sharief, the wiz kid who hit international headlines for his plane-making skills, has finally cleared all his papers. A student of Bangalore's H K B K College of Engineering, Muzakkir, now 33-years-old, married, and on his family way, cleared two of his backlog sixth semester subjects -- Heat and Mass Transfer and Mechanical Vibration -- during the exams conducted by Visvesvaraya Technological University recently. After 10 years of marathon struggle, Muzakkir has an aggregate of 57 per cent in Mechanical Engineering.

Speaking to Express on Thursday, an elated Muzakkir said that his entire teaching staff and friends were finally relieved to hear the good news. "I took sweets to college and everyone kept telling me that I would become someone in life. I always wanted to be a winner, but couldn't crack the engineering code in four years. I had to fight serious health issues, including TB," he said. He made close to 15 attempts to clear his mathematics papers.

His immediate plan is to hunt for a job to support his family with most of the finances already being spent on his plane passion. "I will carry on with my research and development in aviation. I am going to be blessed with a child soon. There are many people who have promised me help. I will start knocking at their doors," says Muzakkir.

Terming him as a 'born inventor', V Ponraj, advisor to former President A P J Abdul Kalam said that Muzakkir is sure to go places in future. "There is a delay and it is understandable. I am happy that with all his problems over the years, he finally managed to clear his exams. Great brains world over have never excelled well in their exams and Muzakkir is yet another case," he said. As the President, Dr Kalam had deputed Ponraj to undertake a recee mission in 2003 to his house in J C Nagar for a first-hand report on the 100-kg plane he built using junk material.

T C Manjunath, HKBK College of Engineering principal said that Muzakkir's was a very rare case. "We kept telling him not to give up. The boy really struggled hard and he used to fail in many subjects. His aviation skills have already inspired his junior batches who have already working on a new project. They are seeking an interaction with the Yelahnaka air base officials, subject to Indian Air Force approval," says Manjuth.

Muzakkir's wife Salma Ahmed Haigi, a B Com graduate, recalled that her husband always feared exams. "He used to get really tense ahead of exams. He even took additional oxygen supplies once after struggling for breath," says Salma. His mother Sayeeda Banu, 69 years, a retired Urdu teacher, now wants her son to find a job soon and also join an M Tech course.

Flashback 2003. India's much-hyped Aviation Capital — Bangalore — erupted in joy when a Class XII boy hailing from a poor family hit the headlines by making a 100-kg weighing plane built with spare parts begged and borrowed from small-time gujri (junk) shops in and around Shivajinagar. The national media ran the story for weeks together and it was a matter of time before the international press too came knocking at his doorsteps. Interestingly, aviation aficionados world over were celebrating the 100th year of the first flight of Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk (December 17, 1903) and Bangalore too had its share of plane stories taking-off in most newspapers.
Mohd Muzakkir Sharieff was barely 20 then and he became a star overnight. His modest house in Munireddy Palya soon turned into a museum of sorts. Schoolchildren lined up from morning to catch a glimpse of his plane named Passion for Success (PFS-1). Unable to handle the media madness, Muzakkir went hiding at his aunt's place.

Bangalore's Famed Plane-Maker Finally Cracks Engineering in 10 Years -The New Indian Express