Dr. Shamim Akhtar Khan

He is a septuagenarian, but an ambitious, active, enthusiastic and well educated dignitary of the region. He has an adventurous and disciplined personality characterised by active participation in social welfare. Early Childhood: He was born on 4th May 1941 in a well-off family and was the only son among his two siblings so very beloved to his parents. His father late Makhdum Bakhsh, one of the largest land holders of the area would take him to fields and teach him how to take care of his fields and agriculture and tried to transfer his hobby of carpentry to him. Being a son of an ambitious farmer, he grew not only in to a progressive cultivator but into a modern agriculturalist and has been invited many a times by Aakashwani Lucknow (UP State Government Radio Station) for radio live talks on issues related to agriculture where he shared his experience with the listeners and provided valuable inputs. Education: He received the basic knowledge of Urdu and Quran reading at home and then was admitted to the Primary School at Stanpurwa in 1951 at the age of 10 years. He completed his 10th from Haidergarh Middle School in 1961 and then was admitted to "Takmil-ut-Tib College" at Lucknow to pursue BIMS in 1962. He had completed just two years in the study of Unani medicine when his parents intended to perform Hajj and while going on pilgrimage they forced him to drop out as they wanted to take him along with them. It was in the year of 1963 and at that time it would take almost 6 months to perform this duty, so when he returned from the Hajj and wanted to rejoin the course, he was not permitted by the college and had to be content with just what he had achieved during the last two years. The Professional Career: He decided to utilise the knowledge that he had obtained during his stay at the college and after much efforts obtained registration certificate from Indian Medical Board of Unani, Lucknow to practice medicine on the basis of his two years study of Unani Medicine. He started the practice privately under the supervision of senior MBBS doctors and got good experience in Surgery and Medicine, and drew moderate income from this profession. In the Politics: In 1974 he contested the election of Block Pramukh but lost due to inconsistency of the promises made to him by some voters. It is during this period that some differences emerged and cracks started to show off in the unity of Khans. These differences which emerged due to some trivial issues resulted into severe rivalry between the two community leaders i.e. Dr. Shamim Akhtar and Ahamd Pradhan which divided the community into two halves making the relations strained and tense. After sometime, a number of well-wishers put their efforts and persuaded them to raise white flag and succeeded in reconciliation of the both in 1984 in the premises of the Madrasa of Garhi Dilawar in the presence of a large gathering. An entrepreneur: As an entrepreneur, he was an adventurous and an enthusiastic man and tried his hands at many industries and businesses, but due to unfavourable conditions and his self-decision making habit he could not succeed much in this realm. Had he succeeded, he would have been counted among the great entrepreneurs of India. The Utensils Factory: In 1976, he stepped into the industry for the first time when he adventured to set up an utensil manufacturing factory near his residence at Bangrah village. This factory produced German silver & Aluminium utensils. He had to shut this factory in 1981 due to insufficient transportation, unavailability of the resources and low profit margins on the products. The Brick-Kilns: In 1982, he got attracted to a small time business and set up a brick-Kiln after purchasing a large area near by Kotwa Naukhera which proved to be a profitable business and prompted him to set up another Brick-Kiln in Khara village which functioned till 1988. Frutico Enterprises Pvt. Ltd.: During 1980s when Amethi was adapted by Capt. Sanjay Gandhi a prominent political figure as the Parliamentary constituency, Jagdishpur was selected to be most suitable place in the district for setting up all scale industries to generate employment for locals. It is during this time when Dr. Khan met Kirti Singh the then VC of NDA university of Kumar ganj, Faizabad and head of the Horticulture ........&Pathak. He was encouraged by Mr. Singh to set up a Fruit Juice & Beverages industry in the developing industrial area of Jagdishpur. He got allotted the industrial plots D6 & D7 in sector 4 (RBL part). After long discussions with the Specialist Fruit Technologists & Chemist and Entrepreneur in this regard, he made up his mind to open a beverage factory to produce fruit items like juice, Jam, Jelly and pickles etc. in the industrial area and the construction work was started for the same and an order to get the required machinery was put with B. Sen Berry & Co., New Delhi after obtaining license from Food Products Orders (FPO). After facing many challenges and difficulties, finally the factory was inaugurated with much celebration and fanfare on 24th June 1988 by the then District Magistrate of Raebareli, Mr. Kalka Prasad, in the presence of many big-wigs of the area like the then MLA of the Tiloi constituency Haji Wasim, Vice President of Indogulf Fertilizer Mr. D. N. Srivastava, SDM Tiloi Mr. E.P. Tripathi, Dr. j. p. srivastava, Head of the department of vegitable and director of seege & research, Chandra shekhar Azad agricultural university, Kanpur and 2000 other guests. The chief chemist Mr. Aggarwal and Mr. Doctor's nephew Mr. Faiz Mohammad Khan devoted their technical skills to run the factory smoothly. The factory firstly started to produce mango and pineapple juices in glass bottles of 200 ml around 10000 bottles per day. The first year saw a great success, especially Fruto, which was a mango drink and was much better than Maza of Parle, brought good returns but from second year onwards the factory incurred losses due to disappearance of the vacant bottles of the company from the market on large scale, bottle breakages and finally the fire which broke out due to short circuit proved to be the last nail in the coffin and the factory was shut after three years. Due to round the year clock of the interest and increasing liabilities, the factory was sold in 2000 to clear the loan and other pending things. Hotel Nasheman: A beautifully built 3 story hotel and inn, with a large green lawn in its compound, was the most attractive and grand hotel in the industrial area. It was located just at the entrance of the industrial area on the south of the national Highway no. 56. On both sides of the lawn there were rows of beautiful huts surrounded by hazes for families. He registered the hotel in the name of his nephew Faiz Mohammad Khan and inaugurated it in 1987 in the presence of the dignitaries of the area. During that time, the "Indogulf Fertilizer" of Virla was under construction so it proved to be the residence of the officials of the Indogulf and earned his good income. But once the Indogulf was ready, the hotel saw a huge decline and depended mostly on High-Way customers who were very little in numbers as this area was not a tourist place. In 1994 again the spring returned to hotel when the construction of the Malvika Steel began, but after the halt of construction again there was a decline in the income. La-Fabricon Pvt Ltd.: The la-Fabricon was started in the plot adjacent to Hotel Nasheman in 1990, under the supervision of Faiz Mohammad Khan and delivered products to Malvika Steel, Govt. Sugar Mill of Siswa Bazar, and other local industires in the area. It was deserted in 2000, and was finally sold along with the Hotel Nasheman in 2006. Social Welfare: He set up first a school in Jagdishpur Industrial area in 1992 in the name "Bright Way Public School", and when he deserted the industrial area and stuck to his home at Bangrah village, he felt that the area was in dire need of quality education and inclined towards setting up a school for girls as this was the only genre which remained in the area due to huge migration of teenage boys to the cities in search of livelihood. He first set up a primary school in 2000 for girls in the name of "Bright Way Balika Inter College", and as the name suggests, he intended to develop it to Sr. Higher Secondary grade as soon as possible. The school was later upgraded to 8th standard and the work to transform it into an Inter College is still under way. He later made up his mind to establish a Girls Degree College also and after getting approval from the government, he started the construction work in 2011 and this is expected to be ready and start functioning from the academic session of 2014. May Allah give him long life and strength to reach his goal! (Based on the replies to a questionnaire presented to him between 18th to 22nd of August 2012)