Jamia Millia Islamia...Jamia Sr.Sec.School

Malik sarwar khan inami, was our chemistry teacher in XI & XII in (1985-87).
Chemistry wasn’t a subject to talk much about but differs from other subject due to separate laboratory & peculiar style of teaching by Malik sahib.
He was a shorter height healthy person, with nice beard & bright face.
A smart person altogether.
He used to come to the class before five minutes & wait in his lab before appears behind the curtain to class room.
The first thing he does is to pick chalk & write “Chemistry” with date on black board.
Then holding chalk in his hand, he starts delivering the lecture in English, without a single word of Urdu.
Some time when he uses to call wasi sahib, his lab assistance in Urdu, he delivers Urdu in English style.
No joke, no smile, just flat teaching & in short a boring 40 minutes period.
Another specialty he used to say before ending his lecture was “rest we shall take to the next turn”
Other than few girls & buttering boys in front row, we all were fed up with dryness in class.
Some time when we talk about him, we used to describe him in chemistry that Malik sahib is although an inert gas but pale yellow with pungent smell.
There was not a single doubt abut his teaching. He was very serious & sincere in class. Used to deliver & finish syllabus in time disregard if it has been understood by students or not.
One funny thing was passed on to us by our senior was his nick name “MATRU”
His nick was the only way of entertainment for us.
I guess they termed him Matru due to his appearance & fast walking. (It may be derived from matar ka dana, which is round in shape & roll easily).
One day while waiting for him in class, he gets little late, students were sitting, chatting & laughing in class.
HZS was standing next to window overlooking principal office, just to alarm in case he arrives.
Suddenly he starts shouting “Matru aa gaya”, “Matru aa gaya” ( matru arrives).
He forgets that his voice can heard out side easily.
He kept shouting till he remain 10-15meters away & then every one went quiet & took respective places.
As usual Malik sahib went to lab washed his hands & appeared behind the curtain.
Instead going to black board where many of tried to write “Chemistry” in his style & forget to wipe it, he asked only one question. “Who was saying matru aa gaya”!!
Tell me “Who was saying matru aa gaya”
Pin drop silent.
No body wants to utter a single word.
Actually no body likes him; there fore he had no “chamchas” in class.
He waited before some one dares to accept, but to no avail.
He finally ordered “wasi sahib zara qamchi laayyega” (Mr.wasi please bring the stick)
Wasi sahib brought the stick; he asked every one to line up & he stand on the exit door.
One by one he punished every one with stick & adjourned the class in anguish.
Every one was happy to get additional 10-15 minutes of fun.
Once he took sessional test, I attempt it & person next to me QMD copied the same wording & without a single thought the same line was copied as it is by the whole row about seven students.
It was a rare incidence that we saw Malik sahib smiling in a satirical way & questioned, how it is possible that every one written same line with same wording?
He finally written off that question & none of us secured any marks on that.

We have noticed a drastic change towards ending of session of class XII.
He became little polite.

Actually he has started coaching for engineering entrance exams & invites many class XII students to join.
During 1986-87, he charged handsome amount from students, there fore majority of them couldn’t avail.
While coming out from examination hall after attempting entrance for engineering, we found Malik sahib standing out with few of his people approaching every single student of jamia senior secondary school to retrieve the questions.
His efforts didn’t stopped there, once he caught me in front of kewal store & talked to me for the same business.
Finally he succeeded in compiling list of model papers for entrance exams & for sure it brings nice fruit for him.
Looking back now from 2007 to 1987, I found that may be we were right in our thinking but Malik sahib was not wrong as per the materialistic approach.
He was doing exactly what a professional has to do.
At least he was doing all his efforts to make money rather trying to eat jamia, which in fact becomes the normal practice later.

Jamia middle school.....Hameed/Farooq sahib

Mathematics, always haunt many students in quite few ways.
That’s the reason, why most students tend to take tuition from Farooq sahib during my days in Jamia middle school.
While in VI standard, we have been introduced with a new teacher.
Hameed sahib.
Topi, sherwani, normal height & small black beard.
Smart, intelligent, quick & always carrying black leather bag with him.
Within few days we get afraid of his carry bag.
He joined school & every day made a practice to open his bag, took small stick out & hit all the students on their palms.
Believe me it hurts a lot & went worse during winter season.
Girl or boy, all has to keep their hands on desk, he comes with stick & hit right on the palm & a wave of pain intrude inside with sensations remains for 15 minutes & even later.
If you are late to the class, delayed in keeping book & note book on the desk, then you have to pay more price, otherwise, one hit was a normal practice.
He was awarded with one section & other section went to farooq sahib, who continued with his usual style of teaching at school & later giving tuition at home.

Since hameed sahib was good in teaching and due to his hit man habit, many students seek tuition from him to find an easy escape.
He lives near to zakir nagar mosque & specialty of his tuition was far different from farooq sahib or any other teacher at that time.
He rejected the normal style & adopted a new style, created a class room, placed chairs & Glass green board (black board).
This attracts many students despite he charged Rs.200 for one hour per student per month as compared to Rs.150 of farooq sahib.
Initially there was no problem, but the whole school smelled the rivalry between two teachers when students starts withdrawing themselves from farooq sahib & joined hameed sahib.
Farooq sahib often becomes irritated & frustrated due to this in class room & students have to face the heat.
Most of the time we saw his anger poured on to Mirza brothers.
Advantage with farooq sahib was that, he also teaches another subject & was class teacher not limited to one subject.
During half yearly examinations & specifically math’s paper, I got both of them as my invigilators.
It was like two lions in one territory.
I had some problem in one question & I asked hameed sahib near to me for clarification.
He came & told me if I can’t understand then attempt other question.
Hameed sahib went to other row & farooq sahib immediately approached me & asked what I was asking hameed sahib.
I repeated & told him that he refused.
Farooq sahib become little angry & explain me the question along with solution.
I felt delighted.
After few minutes, hameed sahib approached me again & questioned what farooq sahib was telling me?
I told him the truth; he asked how many questions balance?
I said five.
Do you find it difficult?
I said yes, one of them & I pointed out.
He then solved the other question for me.
Farooq Sahib was staring from another row & came soon after as hammed sahib departs.
Again the same things & I got another question.
Over all, their rivalry solved four questions for me.
Actually I was not alone in that room as beneficiary.
Tanweer ikram & Shamama khursheed were among others.
Looking back & remembering those days with such rivalry made me smile because students were benefited by them in so many ways, although what benefit I got was wrong.
I never took tuition of any subject throughout my career, yet I have given tuition to many since my school days.
I still remember, once hameed sahib came to me & offer me to join his classes free of cost & I refused him with thanks.
The reason of his offer was, he always cover more what he covers in class, therefore, majority of students took tuition from him to perform better in class & in sessional assessments.
I have given many additional hours to the subject at home & by the grace of ALLAH secured a position in grade VI.
Often I met Hameed sahib during college & senior secondary days.
He passed always smiling & I always look back to my palms.
This was another memoir of my school days.

Jamia senior secondary School...Gupta Ji

Gupta Ji, biology teacher in Jamia senior secondary school during my stay in 1983-87.
Even today I don’t know his full name, other than Gupta ji.
He was tall, dark & an old man in his 50’s.
Thorough gentleman & well versed with knowledge of his subject.
Biology lab was incomplete without gupta ji & jumman bhai (lab assistant).
I have chosen mathematics & Urdu in class XI, but have enough experience with gupta ji during IX & X.
When allotted with section c in IX standard in higher secondary school, I was pretty happy & satisfied because maximum friends of class VIII were there with me.
It was the first time that section c was created in 1983-84 due to bad results & complete IX A was filled with the students who didn’t succeeded to class X.
However, new to higher secondary school, new to biology class.
Those days biology class was situated on first floor, just above the chemistry lab & class.
The whole block was in symmetry with one on middle school side.
While coming from principal office, it was on the left side of pathway going to Jamia nursery school (new building) & extended up to playground over looking physics lab.

It was a biology period & we all were sitting in a jolly mood and listening to gupta ji.
Taqueer ikram, Rashid rafique, ZMA, QMD, HZS & I was sharing one table, & Tauqueer continuously saying some thing supported by Rashid rafique & ZMA.
Gupta ji once pointed out “beta chup ho jao” (Son, please keep quiet).
Since he was very polite & we were new to higher secondary school & the fellow sitting with me were really Guru, there fore they keep continue & I was part of them.
Some one laughed & gupta ji once again “Beta…..Khamosh ho jao”.
He just continued with cell, membrane & dissection & we continued with joke disections, totally unaware of next happening.
Tauqeer said some thing funny & we couldn’t stop our self.
Echo of our laughter went from one table to another, reaching to gupta ji & finally came back to us.
Gupta ji, stopped & asked angrily, who was he?
No one uttered a single word & gupta ji asked once again, who was he?
I thought, if I take the blame, then these people will be spared & what maximum will happen?
Gupta ji never beats any one, may be he will slap me once & that’s it.
On his third call, I raised my hand.
He then said, come here.
I went to his table.
He moved back to the door, closed it & took one thick piece of wood (palang ka paya) (I don’t know the English of it).
I looked at it & thought!!!
Zubair, this is your last day in school, in one hit you will have a broken bone!!
I also looked at my friends, they also in a state of shock, but not like me.
Another thought came to me that, today I will be paying the cost of friendship.
Gupta ji angrily moved at me, I closed my eyes & tighten my body in position of “saawdhan”(attention).
Yes, he struck me by holding it in both hands & I felt it on my hips.
Second one on the same place but all my thanks to ALLAH & to the termites.
That piece broken into two due to honey comb resulted by termite eating.( it was infested by termites almost 70%).
Gupta ji looked at broken piece & then at me!
Directed me to go & sit down.
Class finished.
All my friends asked if I get hurt?
I said, no.
We went to canteen, relaxed a bit & cursed Tauqeer ikram.
Tauqeer finally cleared the bill.
I decided not to take blame of any body, but it was a temporary decision & I repeated the mistake many times for my friends & still in practice, despite loosing too much in many ways.
Next day gupta ji called me & asked, did I get hurt?
He said to me, “I know you were not alone but you took the blame”.
Beta, class meiN khamosh rehte haiN, mujhe maarna achcha nahi lagta hai, ab khayal rakhna.
(Son, be quiet in classroom, I don’t like to beat any one, be care full next time).
I also forget yesterdays’ happening because his love prevails his punishment.

Jamia Millia Islamia....Jumman Bhai

JUMMAN BHAI was a prominent personality of jamia senior secondary school.

Basically he was responsible for many things in school other than administrative & teaching job.
Right from ringing of bell to provide mouse for dissection in biology lab, he was absolute.
Jumman bhai was having many friends with no enemy.
He was always smiley with cracking jokes to all the people.
It is very difficult for me to key down personality of jumman bhai, as he was a multidimensional man.
I still wonder from where he used to get rats for the laboratory?
There were three hostels in Jamia senior secondary school & I have witnessed many students going to jumman bhai’s house (within school boundary & adjacent to hostel-3) & taking breakfast, lunch & dinner. All free of cost.
During school time, many girls used to visit his house & the care shown by his entire family was beyond explanation.
If any hosteler is sick, it is jumman bhai, who used to take care of him.
Right from taking him to dispensary (Ansari health center), bringing back him to his house, comforting him with tea, milk & all kind of available facilities of home.
I never found any body complaining of jumman bhai right from students to the staff.
If some body dies then it was jumman bhai & his family who arrive first to console them.
When it comes to collecting money for Jamia masjid, it was jumman bhai & family along with mirza family who leads the way.
His support was not limited to the students of jamia senior secondary school; it went up to fine arts department situated next to school.
Iam sure that his earnings were way lesser than the teaching staff, but he leads all of them in many ways.
He was the one who even dare go to abdul haq khan saheb to influence his decision if it comes to the benefit of any student & was very much successful.
Although short in height by nature, his real height was more than many big people around.

If some body asks me what are the values of Jamia Millia Islamia & what culture does it have?
I will simply reply to him, go & meet Jumman bhai;

Love & affection for all, big heart to accommodate every one, gratitude, courage to share even if he doesnot have, bring smile to some one even he is in pain, teaching the practical things to the students even he was not a teacher, getting them familiar with truth of life by help of easy & thoughtful examples, taking initiative to help the needy are few features of Jumman bhai rather, feature of My beloved institution, JAMIA MILLIA ISLAMIA.

Jamia millia islamia...Mohammed Yusuf PAPA

Mohammed Yusuf PAPA, physics teacher, vice principal, Jamia senior secondary school.
Urdu poet of humor,
Simple person with a style of his own.
A brand with an ambassador within was all famous for many things.

Papa was a terror for students & every single student tries to even change the track on which papa used to come.
Still bright in my memories, whenever he enters from school gate, the track dividing the four lawns of middle & senior secondary school becomes utmost clear right up to his disappearance to one of the class room after crossing the centre stage.
Students disappear from his path like strong wind of a chopper disperses the grass around!
I already mentioned his onslaught on me in my previous journeys & that was the last for me, but there were some unfortunates, who had experiences it many times.
During practicals of measuring the current by ammeter in class XI, one of the very common episodes, iam sure many of the students may have gone through is,
Shunting of key & winding the wire on the knob.
Papa was very active all the times,
He saw QMD having some problems in taking the readings, he went & observed him.

QMD looked at him, he then said, “Shunt kar”.
QMD didn’t understood & papa repeated, “Shunt kar”
Papa lost his patience & shouted “abe soowar shunt kyoN nahi karta”?
QMD said, ok sir & he remove one connection going to ammeter!!!
“Tujhe shunt karma nahin aata? Din bhar bijar ki tarah ghoomta rehta hai”
Aa meiN tujhe shunt karooN!
He kept his wrist watch, as usual on table & praised QMD in every possible way he can.
After beating him, Papa becomes more ferocious.
It was bad luck of HZS who tries to play smart & come to papa & said, sir I did the shunting, but readings are not very good.
Papa went to his table, looked at the complete assembly, tried shunting & without shunting, same results!!
About to ask sami sahib to change the apparatus, he found the fault.
Now it was the turn of HZS.
HZS made a mistake while connecting copper wire, he winds the wire on knob at least five times & that was crime in papa’s lab.
He shouted again.
Soowar!!! Reading kaise aayegi?
Tu ne pagdi jo baandh rakhi hai.
(How you will get the reading? you have winded it like a turban)
Tujhe meiN pehnata hooN pagdi…..by the the time HZS said sorry, it was almost over.
These were little glimpses of our physics practical classes, English language is unable to express the real feelings we had experience at that time.

It was very common for papa to throw jokes while teaching, those jokes some times went out of proportion, but after all, he was PAPA.
Soowar (pig) was his pet word, chappan chhuri ka dance, tansen ki aulad, bahar kya teri amma nach rahi hai were few of his favourite dialogues.
Apart from all what I have mentioned above, every body might smell that papa wasn’t a good teacher or a good human being?
It’s not like that.
It is a reality that papa was not comfortable at all in numerical, but his theory was very clear.
I remember, during one of the sessional test.
One of my friends played mischievous.
It was papa’s style to provide spread sheet, thoroughly stamped, signed & stapled along with questionnaire.
With the same anticipation, my friend prepared some answers prewritten on loose papers.
Papa distributed the paper, students started attempting them.
As usual papa keeps close eyes on all.
My friend selected the required sheets & removed the pin from the original sheet & inserted the pre written answer sheets to the original by keeping the front page of original intact.
Papa, suspected him, went near to him, stands there for a while and took his answer sheet.
He then said, abe soowar, tu itna hoshiyar kab se hogaya ki saare sawal zara si der meiN hal kar diye?
(How you become so intelligent that you have finished all the questions in no time?)
There was no reply to his question & the ultimate thing has comes once again.
He beats him like a beast.
Throw him out side the class & assured him all the consequences preventing him to appear in exams.
Now, this was very serious.
After finishing the test, we assembled in muzaffar bhai ki canteen to seek a solution.
We have decided to meet papa to apologies.
The main question still remains?
Who will go & talk to him & where?
The way he acted, it means, he can repeat the same any time, any where.
Finally it was decided to go & meet him at home after Maghrib prayer.
A panel of four including me was agreed upon to seek his forgiveness.
Evening came & we all proceeded toward his house, at the entrance we encountered his son & our senior masood bhai.
We asked & he said papa is in.
We send the message that few students from school seek meeting.
He came out & looked at us!
We were frightened for some unexpected to happen.
Yes, it happened, but not the way we were thinking.
Papa, asked us, Kya tum sab iski sifarish lekar aaye ho?
We all said, we are here to seek your forgiveness & he was very afraid, so we accompanied him.
He then said, come in.
We went & sat in his drawing room.
He once again asked our fathers name & told us that whats has happened wasn’t good & we should be honest in what we are doing.
If we are not dedicated with honesty then it will be difficult to achieve the targets in our future life.
We were looking at him while he was talking, completely changed person, quite, smily & calm.
He then forgives him.
He offered us a cup of tea in nice bone china cups, totally different to the cups in muzaffar bhai ki canteen.
We all came out thanking ALLAH & Papa.
It was an achievement for us & we celebrated with Nihari roti in Batla house.
I think, he indeed was a nice person, because he had humorous imagination power.
It was his versatility that made him an icon in jamia millia islamia.
Later on after many years, I heard that students become “very bad students” & one of them has puffed cigarette smoke on papa’s face.

That was the end of one teacher & we never heard any story of papa from our juniors there after.
He has shouted because he knew that we listen to him, he beat us because he knew that we respect him like our parents, he loved us because he knew that we will never hate him.

He was a real person with no artificial flavouring of so called professionalism.
I still respect & love him & this will be conveyed to my kids forever.